the legend of spyro rivalry of gods
by convexity blast
Summary: With Malefor imprisoned in the realms' core and his forces scattered, the realms are the safest they have in over a thousand years. To keep the peace, Spyro and Cynder are purified prematurely by the mysterious crystal-of-eighteen-sides, but this goes far from according to plan. can they and their new allies defeat a powerful new empire birthed by old foes to again save the Realms?
1. chapter 1: a stay in the dragon town

Chapter 1: a stay in the dragon town

Ember had been attacked, and escaped by the skin of her teeth. The young dragoness had no idea of the events to come, and was merely glad that she had just about managed to deliver the crystal-of-eighteen-sides to Ignitus. It was a miracle, to say the very least. Shaking off the shiver that had come from the remembrance of the assault, but failing to rid herself of the memory itself, the visualization of the event filled her thoughts once more; how the enormous being whose eyes she could not see had raised his naturally heavy and heavily ironclad right arm before shattering the large, oaken club with which she had been equipped using one downward motion of his balled fist.

Clenching her teeth, the dragoness forced herself to turn her mind's attention to other matters.

The fact that Ignitus had made the decision to dispatch Ember back to her homeland under the escort of Spyro and Cynder was not a miracle. It was a sheer honour. Upon the great reshaping of the world, it had become impossible to travel from any one realm to another in both directions; and so, this setback had led to the creation of the portals. She was being escorted to the nearest and newest one in the whole of the dragon realms. And they had just arrived.

"You'd seriously do that just because it's us?" the shopkeeper nodded vigorously. Spyro gave the older dragon a warm smile. "Thanks." he said, before slipping away from the crowds to find Cynder. She was with Ember, who was showing her the niceties of shopping and trading; an experience that Cynder had never had the chance to sample before. After recognizing her voice, Spyro flew above the crowd and over to the general direction from which he had heard it, and landed next to Ember. She jumped, leaving Spyro and Cynder laughing hysterically. "Hi, you two. Enjoying yourselves, I see? I've come to book us in to the inn." the joke was deliberate, and it added to the trio's laughing in spite of how bad it was.

He handed Cynder an amulet with a blue gem in the centre of twelve spiralling arms of silver. This was what the shopkeeper had insisted he have for free, quote "A present to the two who saved the world." It fitted her perfectly, hanging from her neck by a platinum chain. And so, after receiving a Cynder's thanks, Spyro led the others to the inn which one of his newfound friends among the town's inhabitants had directed him to upon request, the _flaming glacier_.

Upon entering the trio was met by a mass of applause. Clearly, it seemed, the residents of this town knew the stories of his many battles, and Cynder's, well. The barman gave them their room for free and a drink each on the house. After a moment's thought, Spyro decided that the explanation of this was probably because their presence would increase the pub's popularity to turn a profit far beyond the loss of allowing them to stay without paying. After eating a carvery lunch and filling themselves with mead, they excused themselves from the company of their fans and hit the sack.


	2. Chapter 2: a rude awakening

chapter two: a rude awakening

Spyro's eyelids flicked open. There was something outside - not only that, but he could feel an evil presence too. He knew immediately that the two were linked. Using telepathy - a skill which he had learned from Ignitus upon his and Cynder's return to the newly reconstructed temple - he awoke Cynder without a sound. The pair creeped over to the window, and suddenly they were unsure of themselves. Their gaze had been met by that of a nine-foot-tall humanoid, of the same sort which Spyro had previously encountered whilst being held captive on a pirate air arena. But what they were far more concerned about ( which is actually a gargantuan understatement ) was his staff. For embedded in the end was one of the dark crystals which had housed the life-force of both the golems of the deep and the destroyer.

Out of nowhere, he spoke to the two dragons mentally. "_Relax. I'm not here to hurt you_." the dragons were still wary. " Then prove it. Why are you here?" the being tossed him an object. "_Think fast_." Spyro caught the object. It was the crystal-of-eighteen-sides. "_That's what i came here t_-"

the being was cut off mid-sentence by a low growl from behind Spyro and Cynder.

The being tensed. Suddenly, Ember flew forward at lightning speed. At the last second, the being shielded himself with his staff. Using the shock of the surprise defence to his own advantage, he twirled the staff and simultaneously thrust it forward, sending his opponent flying backwards onto the dirt. Ember leapt back to her feet and flew at him. "Statien!" a blast of magic energy hit Ember square in the chest. As her scales began to radiate with magic energy, she raised her claws ready to strike. As soon as she came within a metre of him, she became rooted to the spot... in mid-air! she could squirm, flap her wings, and anything else, but she could not move from that spot. She was about to scream when the being shut his raised hand. And she couldn't speak. The being now spoke to Spyro and Cynder through his mind once more, taking no more notice of their squirming companion.

"_Stay here through tomorrow night, when both moons shall be full, and allow their light to shine through the crystal-of-eighteen-sides onto you and Cynder. Darkspyro and Darkcynder will become separate beings, with their own bodies._" blasting Cynder's amulet with magic energy, he paused before continuing. "_That spell shall allow you to have any level of control over any dark-dragon which you touch with that amulet of yours. Also, you must, regardless of method, ally yourself with Darkspyro. Do not ask why or question anything else that I've told you tonight, just follow my exact instructions. I must depart now. Goodbye_."

The being used a spell to open a temporary portal, and so soon as it closed upon his passing through it, ember was released from his spell.


	3. Chapter 3: to trust, or not to trust?

chapter three: to trust, or not to trust?

After escorting ember to the newly opened portal, Spyro had come to possess a situation-aggravating piece of information thanks to a last-minute revelation on Ember's part. He had already begun to question why she had been acting so strangely all day. However, this did, rather satisfyingly, tie up the reason why she had launched such a vicious assault against the being upon his sudden arrival (and why she had refused to tell him this information until now). He had apparently been the same being which had attacked her part-way-through her delivery journey to the temple. Now he understood why she had had huge bags under her eyes that day. She hadn't slept at all after her confrontation with the previous night's surprise visitor. And of course, this presented the question of whether or not Spyro and Cynder should indeed trust the instructions of the being who had seemed to be trying to do them a favour.

Upon his and Ember's departure for the portal, which happened to be positioned at the other end of the town, Cynder had told him to take the market route back. he needed some food, health and magic gems, and a weapon. He'd been looking for a gem embedded bracer as well, but after looking through over two-thirds of the entire market without so much as a glimpse of one, it seemed increasingly unlikely that he was going to come across one at all. The purple dragon had, however, succeeded in finding rucksacks for the journey back (which would take a considerably longer amount of time than that of their journey there, thanks to a number of cliffs which would require considerable updrafts for the pair to travel _up _them), a concealable sword, supplies, a map, and a spell book focusing upon long-range communication methods (they had left Sparx behind in order to travel faster).

_Meanwhile..._

Cynder prepared the dinner table and filled two bottles with water. Suddenly remembering that Spyro was capable of producing it for them quite easily, she poisoned it and left the inn by means of their room's window. Once she was out of a one-mile radius of the dragon town, she found a small spring which flowed into no river or stream, but instead into a series of underground caverns. Tipping the poison onto it, she flew upwards until out of sight from anything on the ground without dragon-level vision. Within five minutes, her target had emerged from his hiding place. It was a four-horned black stag. Upon his first gulp of the poisoned water, it had died instantly. Gutting it and salting the meat from a small pouch which she had brought with her, she disposed of its guts and flew it back to the inn.

Having started the tanning process, neutralized the poison within it and readied it for lunch upon spyro's return, Cynder twiddled her thumbs for a while, engrossed in her own thoughts. With nothing left to do, the black dragon went down to the barman and informed him of the time at which they would be booking out the following day. After doing so, she conversed with a few of her fans about past adventures, before taking one aside in order to teach him the skill of telepathy. He grasped it after a few attempts and his friends were amazed by this new skill upon their return to the table. Seeing an opportunity, Cynder slipped away unnoticed. Upon spyro's timely return, the pair went back upstairs and organized the supplies. Upon this task's completion, they sat down and talked as they ate Cynder's earlier catch, eventually deciding to follow the being's instructions from the previous night and hope for the best.

And so, neither of them had anything more left to do but wait, submerged in their respective thoughts until nightfall.


	4. Chapter 4: dark battle

Chapter 4: dark battle

Upon the rising of the full moons, just shortly after nightfall, the two dragons fuelled up on health and magic gems, each testing all of their respective elemental powers once through before doing so. Once they were ready to fight, the pair opened the window and held up the crystal-of-eighteen-sides to eclipse both moons. As the light shone onto them within the format of a distorted beam, nothing seemed to happen "_well this is stran_-" thought Spyro, before his very mind was suddenly cut away from him as there was a huge flash of light and a sound of cracking bones.

The crystal-of-eighteen-sides went rolling into one of the room's four corners, where it came to rest after four-and-a-half rotations anticlockwise.

"Ohh my head..." moaned Spyro, getting to his feet while cradling it in one hand as if it might fall from his shoulders. (Cynder) "By the dark army, that hurt! Oh. It worked..." Spyro averted his gaze and his jaw dropped. There they were, two dark-dragons, just lying there on the floor in front of him. Spyro sauntered up to them, still rubbing his head, and took a pause in order to examine Darkspyro. Suddenly, the dark-dragon leapt to his feet, eyes flaring, and simultaneously knocked Spyro sideways into a wall with a strong tail swipe. Cynder sprung at him instantly, suddenly feeling more alive than she ever had before. Darkspyro turned, shooting a beam of dark energy at her in a vicious assault. At the last second, Spyro shot a jet of flame at the upcoming attack, neutralizing it. With her path now cleared, Cynder flew straight into Darkspyro and knocked him right off his feet. Pressing her amulet to his chest, she gained the exact level of control over his mind that she wanted. Darkcynder's eyes flicked open and she got up.

"Quick Cyn!" shouted Spyro. Cynder jumped towards the second dark-dragon, but was met with a fist. Regaining control before she could smash into a wall, Cynder shouted Darkspyro's first orders: "Knock her out!" Darkspyro flew forward and attacked Darkcynder thrice, hitting her twice before having his legs kicked out from under him. Out of nowhere she flicked her head around to see Spyro about four feet away from the window. Before he had the chance to close it and cut off her exit, she had dived him. For an instant it looked as though she would take him out, but Spyro had fought countless battles before and only lost on one occasion. Rolling backwards, he threw his adversary out of the window just behind. Both him, Cynder and Darkspyro stood at the window and looked out... just in time to see Darkcynder take flight.

"After her!" shouted Spyro, now exceedingly frustrated. The trio gave chase at top speed, Spyro firing a jet of flame at their opponent once in range. Darkcynder barrel-rolled to the left and the assault missed her... just. Cynder corkscrewed, boosting her speed by enough to tackle Darkcynder mid-air and knocking her senseless. Now all Cynder needed to do was press the amulet to Darkcynder's chest and... no, screw that. Shooting down towards the river at almost ninety miles an hour, Cynder planned to let go at the last second. Yes, the fall would surely kill her adversary... but within the last thirty metres, Darkcynder regained awareness. Immediately realizing what was about to happen, The dark-dragon struck out, sending Cynder flying backwards and pulling out of the dive.

Now I should explain that the level of control over Darkspyro which Cynder had chosen to have was... none. She had merely permanently implanted a hatred for particular things within him. In other words, he shared their enemies. So when he shot Darkcynder in the wing and she went down into a dark canyon, he stopped his two allies from following her.

"She'll slaughter you both. Her powers are at their strongest in the dark." Both Spyro and Cynder were thoroughly confused.

"But Cynder has dark powers and so do you." said Spyro. "Yes, but Cynder's powers of shadow would be no match for her's, and I'm clean out of magic energy. I'll take her on tomorrow though if you want." A smile spread across his allies' faces. "Then you will!" shouted Spyro, shooting a ball of exploding flame into the canyon where Darkcynder was as a sign that soon, they would have every advantage in their favour.


	5. Chapter 5: learn from the master

Chapter 5: learn from the master

At dawn, Spyro, Darkspyro and Cynder packed up their remaining possessions and left the bartender their keys, before heading out by flight to the canyon in which Darkcynder would be waiting for them. About eight metres from the edge of the gaping chasm draped in shadow they stopped. "You two stay back a couple of metres. I'll call for you if I'm in need of help. Watch and learn."

Crouching down on all fours, the trio crept to the edge. Seeing Darkcynder in the middle of casting a spell, Darkspyro leaped down from his vantage point and immediately shot a bolt of dark energy towards the other dark-dragon. It was stopped about a foot away from her by an invisible shield and absorbed into it. Darkcynder's chant came to a halt and her eyes flicked open. "So... you've come to fight me again, have you?" she asked, her voice in the tone of a challenge. Darkspyro ran forward, simultaneously going from four legs to two. Darkcynder drew out two ten-inch knives and span them towards Darkspyro with the intent of decapitating him. At the last second, he made a leap forwards, flying over them and missing the blades by less than a centimetre apiece. Landing in a forward roll, the dark-dragon grabbed Darkcynder with one hand, span her around, and threw her into the canyon wall. As she leapt to her feet, Darkcynder smashed her fist against the ground at an angle. Nine huge rocks flew towards Darkspyro. This was not looking good. He shielded himself from the first seven with his wings, but the last two were far bigger. Smashing the first one with a mighty punch, he readied himself for the second.

Leaping at it once it came to be only five feet away from him, the dark-dragon grabbed it and front flipped in mid-air, reversing and doubling its momentum. Darkcynder's face fell. A forty-kilo boulder smashed into her at thirty miles-an-hour. Crushed against the canyon's vertical wall, and knocked out, she was seemingly at Darkspyro's mercy. But Darkcynder had one last shield in her armoury of magic.

Darkspyro moved to break her neck with a single twist, but another invisible force stopped both his hands and Darkcynder's neck from making the deadly movement. "Dammit, not more wards..." Spyro and Cynder were now gliding down to him from their outpost, still watching intently to see what would happen next. Darkspyro looked up at them in dismay. "I have no idea how to work around this..." he trailed off part way through his sentence. Spyro looked thoughtful. "I have an idea." he said, a grin slowly spreading across his face.

Picking Darkcynder up as carefully as he could (so as not to disturb her wards), Spyro flew upwards and out of the canyon. After re-posting Cynder with their bags to keep them well guarded while they were gone, Spyro and Darkspyro went back to the river and flew down its length until it broadened out. After flying a further two hundred metres, they found it. Flying upwards until he was four hundred metres above the river, Spyro let Darkcynder drop down into a huge whirlpool. "I'm pretty confident that that'll do the trick."


	6. Chapter 6: start of the journey

Chapter 6: start of the journey

Having disposed of Darkcynder and met up with Cynder once more, Spyro and Darkspyro tightened the straps on their rucksacks and made a few final checks before leaving. They had enough salted meat to last two and a half days, a feathered blanket for each of them, and Spyro could produce his own water. With their straps tightly fastened and all the supplies they needed, the trio beat their wings until they were two hundred metres in the air, and began the long flight home.

"I'd like to see the temple. From how happy the pair of you look to be making this flight, it must be a pretty nice place to live." Said Darkspyro, smiling warmly as he looked upon the contented faces of his two companions. "it is indeed." Replied Spyro, happy to converse with his new friend. "It's certainly one of the very best places to live on any of the major united island clusters, for a dragon at any rate." The purple dragon continued, glancing over at Cynder and then back at Darkspyro, as the black dragoness nodded in agreement.

Flying on, the trio continued their conversation whilst steadily increasing their speed, until they halted upon the coming of nightfall.

Hovering as a three, Spyro turned to the others and spoke. "Ok then, the sun is firmly down. We need somewhere to rest for the night, so while there's still some twilight left, I'm going to check how suitable that island is for us to sleep on. You two wait here, it might not be safe." The others nodded and continued to hover whilst Spyro checked the suitability of the island which they were taking into consideration. "it's safe!" the purple dragon called across the wide, fast-flowing river, and the two other dragons sighed with relief as they lazily flew the last hundred metres to the rest they so desperately needed.

_5 minutes later…_

the campfire crackled and smoked under the velvet night sky, as Spyro slowly turned a pair of pigeons upon a spit, careful to get the meat just right. After finishing the meat off with a final turn, he removed the birds from his carefully chosen stick and dispersed the food alongside thickly sliced pieces of bread and chopped plum throughout the trio. Eating a well-cooked meal within such a magical atmosphere was very much a sociable occasion, and a trio of contented souls such as this were ideal candidates for some rich conversation. After eating and conversing as a whole, the trio slipped off one at a time to bathe in the warm, calm waters of the artificial sand-spring which Spyro had dug over on the western point of the small island (from which the fast water of the river reunited itself into one and flowed away). The sand-spring was separated from the rest of the camp by a threesome of boulders, all different sizes but all essentially large. There was, however, a natural path flanked by two strips of grass, which led from their campfire and sleeping area, through the space in between the second and third boulders, and out onto the westernmost point.

The pool itself was heated and lit from all angles by four miniature campfires which Spyro had placed there, and had plenty of legroom at two metres wide and a foot and a half deep. One by one, the dragons came down the path and left their blankets folded up upon the dry sand at the poolside, and within five minutes of eating, all three of the dragons had slipped into the soothing warmth of the spring's heated waters. Sprawling out and relaxing as the clear water engulfed the majority of each of their bodies, the trio began to converse once more.

After a further twenty minutes of relaxation and rich conversation, the dragons emerged and dried themselves off. Packing away one of the blankets, Spyro and Cynder huddled up together and shared one between them, as Darkspyro bunked down and curled up upon the other side of the campfire. Looking across at his two friends with drowsy eyes, the dark dragon pulled the blanket tighter over himself, and fell asleep.


	7. Chapter 7: the impossible nightmare

Chapter 7: the impossible nightmare

Darkspyro was in the temple. He had only seen glimpses of it whilst he had been locked in spyro's subconscious mind, and yet the clarity of the room he was standing in was perfect, right down to the last particle of dust. Spyro was handing back the crystal of eighteen sides to Ignitus with Cynder by his side. Suddenly, Ignitus turned around and his eyes met with his own. The elder of fire froze as there was a sudden glint of silver which shot forth at lightning speed out of his chest, before instantly retracting back inward. The crystal of eighteen sides fell from his hand and shattered, before he writhed as a thousand beams of pure blue light shot out if his body. In one single moment, the great elder of fire had disintegrated into nothing but air. His disappearing act also revealed Spyro and Cynder pinned to the temple wall by semi-tangible shards of dark magic. Darkcynder stood with a long knife of silver in her hand and an evil smile on her face. Darkspyro dived across the room and grabbed a sword which Spyro had had concealed under his wing before their enemy had disarmed him. Darkcynder advanced and there was the clash of two blades meeting edge-on-edge. Darkspyro held up against his adversary's relentless advances and before long he had disarmed her. Out of nowhere, Darkcynder pulled a back flip evasion and muttered something.

There was a flash of light and Darkcynder was now in her gigantic form. Cynder had also fallen unconscious after the flash. Darkspyro attacked instantly but Darkcynder caught his sword and took it from him, simultaneously throwing him into a wall. Darkspyro watched in horror as his opponent crumpled up the titanium sword and threw it to one side. Choke slamming him into the wall, she telepathically took from him what she needed and allowed him to fall to the floor.

"I know you're scrying me Cynder, and I know this is a dream." he said.

"Perhaps, but I have what I need from you now. Bye." His adversary laughed, before killing him with a jet of flame.


	8. Chapter 8: an unpleasant surprise

Darkspyro awoke in a cold sweat. To his surprise, it was about two hours after dawn. Spyro and Cynder were fast asleep. Getting up, the dark dragon kicked a few stray logs back onto the remains of the fire, and checked the perimeter of the island. Satisfied, he took careful aim and shot a dark energy bolt into the water. A five-finned salmon floated lifelessly to the surface. The dragon dove in and retrieved his catch.

_12 minutes later… _

Having just cooked the salmon on the campfire's last embers before devouring it, Darkspyro now sat down and looked out to the south of the camp, to where they were heading. On the opposing riverbank, he saw something emerge from the trees that banked the sides of the wide grass path directly ahead. As more emerged, he came to the realisation that they were a pirate scouting party of humans and apes. As he focused more, he saw that they were assembling something…

"Oh shit!" he said, simultaneously waking his companions telepathically.

"It's a fucking mortar!" shouted Spyro as the trio dived behind one of the boulders to protect themselves.

After two of the three boulders had been reduced to rubble and the camp destroyed, Cynder and Darkspyro dived out of cover to retrieve the bags, whilst Spyro used an earth shot to reflect an oncoming missile back at their attackers. With the scouting party's ears ringing and most of them knocked over, the trio of dragons took full advantage of the distraction and ran up the remaining boulder onto an updraft. Flying past at enormous speed considering they were carrying bags, they were out of range before the party could recover. Taking a gamble, Spyro quickly span around mid-flight and shot an electric charge at the pirate's mortar, putting it out of action for good.

After they had put a few miles between themselves and the scouting party, they came across a cliff. Resting on a ledge twenty metres from the rock face's base, they discussed what to do next.

"I think we should carry on, or go around if needs be." Spyro suggested.

"We couldn't go round the long way, it would take far too much effort with such small updrafts. We could walk through the forest, but it would be too risky if the pirates are carrying heavy weaponry and the parties have more than one human in apiece. I suggest we scale the cliff." Offered Darkspyro, eager to evade capture by their pirate pursuers.

"The cliff is too sheer. Our best bet is to wait for tomorrow's morning updraft to carry us over." Cynder pointed out.

And so the three dragons set up camp on the ledge for the night.


	9. Chapter 9: defending the ledge

Chapter 9: defending the ledge

Having eaten to their satisfaction and conversed for a while, Spyro, Cynder and Darkspyro heard a loud rustling coming from the trees at the cliff's base. Suddenly alert, the three of them got to their feet and went over to the edge to investigate. At first they saw nothing, but after more rustling and several seconds, fifteen apes, three captains, and an extendable ladder grappler (carried by four of the apes) emerged from the trees that lay to the left of the grass path.

"Oh bollocks." Said Darkspyro; all three dragons knew full well that humans far surpassed any dragon in armed combat, provided that they had had no limbs replaced, that is. This had never been a problem for Spyro when he was on his own, as he was capable of hitting the far inferior apes into the skilled, muscular pirates (so long as there were no more than one present), or in cases that exceeded his ability unleash an elemental fury upon his foes. But this time he was out of his depth. Three armed humans void of injury, fifteen personally trained apes (also armed), a means of reaching them, and no way out. For a moment the purple dragon considered using a fury, before remembering he had sacrificed both this ability and his power over time itself, in order to save him and Cynder as the well of souls had collapsed around them nearly four years ago.

The three backed away from the cliff edge and braced themselves for battle. Spyro was in front centre, Cynder behind and to his left, with Darkspyro parallel to her and to Spyro's right. The ladder attached to the cliff base and extended. The first three apes leapt onto the platform, two of them drawing a knife each from behind their backs, whilst the third in the centre remained unarmed. Out of the blue, a human (which I should mention are from 6 to 8 feet tall in the dragon realms) front flipped from several feet further down the ladder onto the ledge. He made a perfect landing by means of assisting it with his left hand, whilst simultaneously drawing his diamond-edged sword from the sheath on his back with his right. Standing up, he glanced at each of the three dragons before shouting out at his minions.

"Battle stratagem four, three opponent variation!"

The third ape ran forward and spin-kicked Spyro in the face before running up the entire length of his body and drawing his knife in mid-air. Landing in front of Cynder, he instantaneously began the delivery of a flurry of blows to her. Before he could recover, the other two apes converged on Spyro, whilst in the millisecond it took Darkspyro to glance at his friend, the human had begun his assault on him. Spyro dodged the first two attacks before being hit by a third swipe. The second ape dived at him instantaneously, but was reversed by their opponent, who then delivered a swift elbow to the throat. The first ape saved his accomplice with a reverse choke pin from behind. Unfortunately for the ape, Spyro twisted its arms inwards and broke them, before turning around and tossing it off of the cliff.

Two more apes jumped up onto the ledge, drawing their knives in mid-air. But only one made it… Spyro had, quite by accident, hit one of them off of the cliff with his previous opponent! Out of nowhere, the ape to which he had delivered an elbow-thrust gambolled to his feet, snapped his neck back into place, and drew a second knife! The others did the same, and things were looking like they couldn't get much worse. Without warning, the two apes nearest to Cynder flew thirty feet into the air and dropped back down onto the ledge, killing them instantly. The black dragoness had unleashed a small tornado! As the last ape was about to backstab Spyro, Darkspyro ran right up the body of the human who was his own opponent. Sending the ape flying off of the cliff with a blast of dark energy, he side-rolled as he landed, thereby avoiding his adversary's next swipe. The three dragons regrouped and each assumed a battle stance. The pirate immediately performed a hugely powerful sideswipe, Cynder somehow vaulting the blade at near impossible speeds, Darkspyro ducking, and Spyro evading with a capaoira-like leap. Without pause, their opponent followed up with a downward smash. As Spyro and Cynder were knocked sideways, Darkspyro back-flipped and the human's sword lodged in the ledge.

As he attempted to remove the huge sword, the edge of the cliff crumbled underneath his feet, sending the six-and-a-half foot tall pirate plummeting to the ground far below. Darkspyro panted heavily as Cynder and Spyro got to their feet.

"Well done… that was down to you, not Spyro or me." Said Cynder, shaking off the effects of the fall she had just experienced. Spyro nodded and patted his friend on the back.

"Battle stratagem six, followed up by eight!" rasped a seven foot tall pirate from the other end of the ledge. The dragons whipped around to see five apes in full armour, each armed with dual shields. The human was wielding a battle axe as large as himself. Before the dragons could adequately concoct a plan for themselves, the apes had advanced, easily guarding against their enemies' blows, and separated Cynder from the trio. As Cynder struck out repeatedly against these new foes, Spyro and Darkspyro charged their human captain. Missing his weapon by mere centimetres, the pair hit him square in the chest, but to no avail. Delivering a single blow to each of them, he effortlessly knocked them ten paces backward. Three more apes wielding swords jumped up onto the ledge. Charging toward the two dragons with their leader just behind, two were struck dead in four seconds flat. Throwing the third into the air, Spyro back-flip kicked it into the oncoming human, knocking him off balance. At this point Cynder finished her own foes with a shadow strike, so all three dragons kicked off from the rock face behind.

Smashing into the pirate as one, the trio sent him flying backwards and off of the ledge. As Darkspyro landed, he punched the end of the huge ladder, sending it toppling backwards onto the grass clearing behind. As both the two remaining apes and their hammer wielding captain were on the ladder as it fell, it seemed safe to say that the scouting party had been well and truly terminated.


	10. Chapter 10: nightfall

Chapter 10: nightfall

After cleaning up the bloody mess all over the ledge, the trio ransacked a few of the pirates' tools and weapons before Cynder and Spyro began to prepare lunch. Darkspyro, who could not cook, was left to dispose of the bodies of their foes in an honourable fashion.

Liberating them of their dog tags, the dark dragon dug a tomb in the earth and lay the scouting party to rest inside. Engraving into a boulder their identities, as indicated by the dog tags, he moved to seal the grave with it.

Catching him off guard, the body of the captain who had been on the ladder as it fell sprang up. Before he could cry out, the human seized the moment and hit Darkspyro across the jaw. As the dragon hit the floor, the pirate grabbed his weapon and ran back into the forest the way he had come. By the time Darkspyro had got back up from the ground, his foe had disappeared into the night. Shrugging it off and clicking his jaw back into place, he sealed the tomb and flew back up onto the ledge.

After eating their evening meal, which consisted of two short legged hares and a loaf of bread between them, the three discussed their route back to the temple, before Darkspyro told them about the survivor who had fled just ten minutes earlier.

"If we went now we might catch him, but there are no updrafts above the forest, so we'd have to travel on foot. We'd probably get lost in there at this time of night too, and he might even end up stalking us." Spyro pointed out.

"He's right, we don't know that forest, and he clearly does. It'd be too much of a risk to search for him now." Added Cynder.

"Yeah, you two are probably-"

Darkspyro was cut off mid-sentence by a flash of dark energy exploding between the three of them. Knocked off their feet, they were shocked out of their wits as the cloud of black light formed a specterous image of Darkcynder.

"_He's not your problem, foolish dragons… I am!"_

The three gaped in astonishment as she cackled.

"_That's right; this is as good as scrying gets! I know your location, I'm alive, and I'm on the fleet where your pirate friends came from! Oh, the reward and satisfaction I'll get from selling them your location!"_

The dark dragon dematerialised whilst cackling in a second explosion of black light, leaving her rivals chilled to the bone…


	11. Chapter 11: dawn

Chapter 11: dawn

Cynder opened her eyes. Crawling out from between spyro's wings, the dragoness got to her feet and stretched. Flying down to the edges of the forest at the cliff's base, she foraged for about five minutes. Returning to the camp atop the ledge, she woke Spyro and got him to light a fire, before cooking a light breakfast of two bush eagle eggs and a chunk of bread for each of them.

After finishing their meal and briefly admiring the sunrise, Spyro tested the updraft whilst Cynder and Darkspyro packed up the camp. Extinguishing the fire, the three of them strapped on their bags and left the ledge behind them.

Flying upward on the enormous morning updraft, the trio cleared the cliff face and slope behind as easily as they normally would a small hill. Flying on as the dawn grew brighter behind them, they travelled four miles without a word, thinking only of the journey ahead and the amazing view of the lush grassy plain they were flying over.

After a few hours of flying straight in the direction of the temple, they came to a region of dense heather. Having flown a few hundred metres over it, Spyro glimpsed a glint of light in amongst the bushes. Squinting, his eyes widened as he realised what it was.

"Bloody hell, it's a fucking cannon!" he shouted to the others, instantly veering off to the left in order to avoid the first shot. Looking around as he continuously changed direction to avoid its shots, the purple dragon realised that there was not just one cannon… but five!

With so many firing on them at once, the trio were soon shot down, almost simultaneously. After hitting the ground hard, the three regained awareness and sprang to their feet. Assuming battle stances, they slowly span around back to back, watching the bushes for any sign of movement. After a few seconds of rustling, the heather around them suddenly disintegrated in a mass of dancing orange flames. Once the heather was well and truly gone, six apes of medium size extinguished the circle of fire with buckets of water, revealing a female human, two huge wagons, and the five cannons which had shot them down. Advancing, the six apes moved in to capture the dragons with chains, cuffs, and clubs.

Kicking one of her foes in the face, Cynder ran up the body of another, launching herself at the captain and latching on to her. As she took her foe down in a whirl of fists and claws, Spyro made a break for it in order to assist her. Seizing their opportunity, the apes temporarily turned their attentions to the purple dragon and beat him to the ground. Having bound Spyro in chains, they pinned Darkspyro and cuffed him before he could help his friend.

As Cynder continued her assault on the captain, she failed to notice how her opponent was slowly rising to her feet. Just milliseconds before Cynder could throw another punch, the female pirate threw her to the ground, winding her badly. Pinning the black dragoness by the throat, the human cuffed her hands and feet before she could retaliate. Calling over one of the apes, she got him to hold Cynder still whilst she backhanded her across the face.

His blood boiling, Spyro waited until the pirate was about to strike Cynder down for the third time. Breaking free of his captors, the dragon charged right into the captain at such a speed that she had no time to react; his horns pierced straight through her stomach and came out the other side.

As the female fell, Darkcynder walked out from behind the apes, sarcastically clapping…


	12. Chapter 12: the return of Darkcynder

Chapter 12: the return of Darkcynder

Every head in the clearing turned to Darkcynder, and she stopped clapping. Walking over to the wagon, she paused and turned to the apes. Pointing at Spyro, she spoke to them with authority.

"Seize him." The apes instantaneously obeyed, and advanced too fast for the now tired purple dragon to react. Cuffing his arms and legs, they bound him in chains and hit him with a club from behind. Spyro hit the ground almost lifelessly as he was knocked out from the blow.

A short while later…

Spyro slowly opened his eyes, still dazed from the blow to his head that had earlier made him lose conciseness. Sitting up, he found to no surprise that he remained bound in a number of chains. As he shook his head, Darkcynder walked over to within a few yards of him and stopped.

"Raise him." She ordered, and the apes brought Spyro to his feet. As she muttered a spell, Spyro was surrounded by a red and purple glow. The dragon could feel it trying to materialise inside him, and roared. The light flickered, before dispersing into thin air. Darkcynder tried twice more, but her spell could not break the barrier of Spyro's will.

Taking out a silver knife from beneath her left wing, she pressed it to her enemy's throat.

"I'll kill you, don't be under the illusion that I won't." she threatened, fire in her eyes.

"Don't lie to me, Darkcynder. I know for a fact that if you didn't need me for something, I would already be dead." He replied, with dazed confidence.

"If you do not succumb to my spell, you are of no use to me anyway. If you value your pathetic existence, you will give in…" she said, retracting the knife and repeating the spell.

Spyro growled, unblinking, and the light once more dispersed. Darkcynder once more advanced and held the knife to the purple dragon's throat.

"Any last words?" she asked, her voice filled with malice.

Spyro smiled. "Yes, actually. I knew you were bluffing."

The dark dragoness lowered the knife from her adversary's neck. "Enough of this fuckshit. Tie his chains to a couple of trees." The apes did so. Darkcynder walked over to the wagon and hauled Cynder out of it. Holding her in a neck lock from behind, she pressed her knife to the black dragoness' chest. Spyro struggled, but could not break his chains.

"Do we understand each other now?" she asked, a smile spreading across her face.

"Fuck you." Spyro growled.

Darkcynder once again cast the spell, and Spyro finally succumbed. As he allowed the energies to penetrate his chest unchallenged, he felt a shift in his very anatomy. Voices pulsed through his head as he entered a state of complete confusion.

"Right then, lets go and get all of you off to the pirate fleet…" said Darkcynder, throwing Cynder back onto the wagon.

As Spyro was being unchained from the trees by the apes, the voices grew louder and reality faded from his vision. The purple dragon collapsed into the dirt, unconscious…


	13. Chapter 13: imprisoned

Chapter 13: imprisoned

Spyro regained consciousness only to find himself suspended in mid-air by two cast iron chains. Immediately realising that he could not turn his head in any direction thanks to a steel movement restriction collar, he shifted his centre of gravity in order to allow himself some movement, he drew his concealed weapon in one swift movement and severed the chain attached to his right arm.

Preventing himself from smashing into the wall to his left by using his legs, the purple dragon severed the other chain and dropped to the wooden floor, landing perfectly. Resheathing his weapon, he paced up and down the wall that had moments ago been to his right. Finding the absolute weak point in the two-inch thick wooden boards, he marked it with his sword before taking six large paces backward.

Charging the wall with his right shoulder, he tensed as he hit the woodwork. There was a loud crack. Spyro suddenly felt agonising pain as his shoulder clicked out of its socket and then back in again.

"What the hell did they use to make this wall? Screw this…"

Walking over to the steel bar cell door, he leaned down and prized off his movement restriction collar. Discarding it, he went back across the cell to the weak point he had marked. Spin-kicking it twice, he head-butted the wall four times before afterward charging at it with his good shoulder. Hearing it crack instead of him, the dragon threw his most powerful punch in the perfect spot, falling straight through the now broken boards and landing on his face.

Picking himself up off of the floor, his eyes met with Cynder's at the exact moment that she finished slipping the lock on her own collar. Dusting himself off, he was startled as he received a passionate embrace from Cynder the moment he looked up again. Holding each other tight, they allowed themselves to be engulfed by the sheer emotion of the moment.

"Thank god you're alright. What the fuck did that bitch do to you?" said Cynder, squeezing him tighter as a tear rolled down her cheek.

"I have no idea, but if she kept us alive because of it, it must be important. I couldn't let her hurt you." Spyro replied to his partner.

Sinking down next to each other in the nearest corner, the pair stared deep into each other's eyes.

"_So what do we do?" _asked the black dragoness telepathically.

"_I have an idea," _Replied Spyro, half smiling._ "If we patch that wall up, but not very well, and remove my chains from the other room, then who's to say we weren't meant to be in the same cell anyway?"_

"_Indeed… and with two of us covering each other and no patrols at night, I bet we'd be out of here in no time." _Added Cynder, standing up again as Spyro did the same.

The pair smiled at each other and set to work.


	14. Chapter 14: the greatest honour of all

Chapter 14: the greatest honour of all

Upon the sunrise of the third day that Spyro, Cynder and Darkspyro had been imprisoned on the pirate fleet that Darkcynder had sold them to, an escort comprising of two humans unlocked the door to Spyro and Cynder's cell. Gesturing for the pair to come with them, they took the two dragons down the hall.

"So, how are you two doing?" asked one of the pirates.

The question caught Spyro off guard. "Oh… we're ok, aren't we Cyn?" replied Spyro, looking over to her. The black dragoness looked just as surprised.

The pirates picked up on this and laughed. "I'm sorry, your view of humans must be slightly tweaked though, I suppose. But I have to tell you now, we're only civilised beings, just like you are. Judging us simply by the fact that the only humans that you've met have been scouting parties is a bad thing to do."

"He's right," the other pirate butted in "For us, honour comes from arranged combat. It is considered noble beyond anything else to compete in the arena, especially in tournaments. The only interests of those who arrange these honourable events are that the winner of each one will receive as much appreciation and honour for competing as they deserve, so each combatant must be mighty enough to reward the others with a great victory if he is defeated by one of them. Not only this, but it is expressly against the rules of combat for humans to fight each other in such a tournament, so scouting parties have to go down from our ships onto the islands below in order to find these combatants. Such a pirate will be rewarded handsomely for going to such an effort to find these warriors."

At this point Spyro was actually beginning to understand why the pirates went to such lengths to find them, and so was Cynder.

"But what really matters," the first pirate continued "Is the fact that some pirates have become corrupt, and no longer care about the well being of such warriors, not taking care of them as they would another human but instead seeking them to capture, so they may take less time to take them back here and more time finding even more in the same way. The purpose of this, in their eyes, is purely to receive a greater number of rewards in a shorter space of time."

The dragons now realised why these pirates were so civilised and the others weren't. The others had been mercenaries.

"So how are you?" asked Cynder, now in a more social mood.

"We're fine, yeah. Might be competing in the arena ourselves soon, eh Jack?" the second human nodded in agreement. "Actually we just got promoted. We've got a team of fifteen apes each at our beck and call. But I've heard a lot about you two in the past four or five years, so when jack and I heard that someone had brought you in for the tournament, neither of us could resist applying to be your escorting team."

The four of them smiled at each other and laughed. As they came to the combatant entry area, the two pirates wished them luck. "Oh, and I'm Sam by the way, Samson Wyvernshedder. We have reserved seats between the cannons on the right side of the arena. Good luck!"

And with that, the pairs departed.


	15. Chapter 15: the tounament

Chapter 15: the tournament

Spyro and Cynder stretched their arms and cracked their knuckles. This was going to be intense. Spyro had memories of just how hard air arena tournaments could be. Suddenly, the host began his introduction and the combatants' doors opened. The two dragons stepped out into the light and were met with roars of appreciation as they walked out to face their opponents; the hundred ape ninjas of concurrent skies!

Out of the blue the hundred apes dispersed in a blurred sequence of gambols, leaps and flips. Eighty knives flew toward them from all directions, before freezing in mid air as Spyro unleashed a miniature snowstorm. As they fell to the ground and shattered, a legion of thirty apes attacked from above. Four of them were met with a fist, seven a kick, and two with Terrador's punishment. As the rest landed, ten were met with ice shards before three perished from a fire blast; head butts and shadow claws hitting all whom hadn't been killed. Using their dead for cover, fifty of the apes appeared out of nowhere whilst the rest hailed arrows and knives on their adversaries. Fifteen were now blown into the air by a shadow strike waiting to happen, eleven killed by a combination of fire breath and earth missiles, and all who landed immobilized with a blast of fear waves.

As the arrows and knives from the other apes shot toward the two dragons at lightning speed, Cynder used a huge whirlwind to shoot them back at their own possessors, felling another sixteen. The remaining thirty-nine converged on the pair, cynder killing twelve with poison attacks whilst Spyro killed six with a lightning bolt and then eight with an earth boulder jump. Cynder now killed one with an attack reversal that included a knife, and another five with intoxicating darkness breath. Spyro rose into the air and created an electric storm around him, blasting all nine of their remaining opponents to kingdom come.

As he dropped back down to the ground, both Spyro and Cynder were met with masses of applause. Their two human friends had been right. This was a sheer honour.

As round two commenced, they clicked their necks in unison. This time, they were going up against a nature spirit. Ten humans dragged a fifty-ton lump of metal ore into the centre of the ring. After they were clear, the captain amplified the sound of a pickaxe hitting a chunk of iron ore. The god-like nature spirit awoke with a roar that shook the entire arena. Unfolding itself and getting to its feet, the gargantuan sentinel punched the arena floor, sending a shockwave to its two challengers which they could not evade.

As Spyro and Cynder flew backward into the wall behind, the giant began its lumbering advance toward them. Leaping back to their feet, the two dragons flew towards it, confusing the being just as they planned. Circling its head, the pair soon found that their attacks were useless against its iron shell.

Trying as hard as they could to think whilst evading its massive arms, Spyro and Cynder resorted to communicating telepathically.

"_Even our heavyweight attacks will only effect it if it's already off balance and confused… so I guess we'll just have to make it that way." _thought Spyro, sharing his idea with Cynder through telepathy.

"_If we use our only other asset to our advantage, we might be able to utilize the ship itself. All we need is to do something completely unfathomable first." _Cynder suggested, as she dodged a massive swipe."

"_I'll take care of that." _Spyro replied, swooping in on the huge creature's head.

Hailing a stream of ice shards on his opponent to slow it down, the purple dragon landed right in front of its gob. Drawing his concealed sword, Spyro used the weapon to jam the nature spirit's mouth open as it tried in vain to bite him. Shooting a fire bomb down his enemy's throat, he flipped backward as the giant moved to remove the sword as fast as it could.

Realising that his adversary had now adjusted to being at a reduced pace, he withdrew the effects of his ice shards, causing the iron being to punch itself in the face. With its left eye mangled to hell, it roared and lunged at the pair.

Gesturing to Cynder, Spyro reinstated the effects of his earlier ice shard attack upon the being at the last second, both of them simply barrel rolling out of the creature's way as it was forced to continue the lunge because of its own weight. As both of its arms lodged in a cannon each, Spyro shot a lightning bolt into the two weapons, causing them to fire.

With its face damaged and arms mangled, the nature spirit stumbled backward from the twin shock it had just received. Taking full advantage of the situation which they had so blatantly caused, the two dragons delivered a perfect earth boulder-and-shadow-strike smash to the centre of the iron being's chest.

The giant was felled with such force that it went straight through the air-arena's reinforced floor and down into the clouds below. Once again the pair of dragons were met with a round of applause the likes of which they had never heard.

As humans poured onto the deck to fix the exceedingly large hole in the floor, the ship's captain called an emergency break in the tournament for maintenance.

"Be ready to fight again in half an hour." He shouted to the remaining combatants, temporarily dismissing them whilst the ship was repaired. 


	16. Chapter 16: lunch with pirates

Chapter 16: lunch with pirates

After leaving the arena, Spyro and Cynder met up with their two friends Samson and jack, before being escorted to lunch. As they wandered the halls of the huge air arena, the four of them once again fell into conversation.

"What you did out there in the tournament was amazing," praised Jack, quick to acknowledge the power and skill that the pair of dragons possessed in battle.

"He's right. What most dragons fail to make up for in battle is their lack of natural ability with weapons, especially when fighting hostile humans. But what you pulled off out there today was enough to leave even us dazed!" laughed Samson, just as pleased for the pair's success.

"Wait a minute…" began Spyro, confused "Didn't we just walk past the combatant dining hall?"

Samson and jack smiled. Leading the two dragons down another hall, they gestured for them to open the closed door and walk inside. The pair did so, with their friends close behind, and immediately went wide-eyed with surprise. They now stood in a huge room with hardwood castle doors, windows made of gemstone and gold coins scattered in huge piles across the floor. There was a polished circular granite table in the centre with five thrones around it and a blazing fire behind.

This was the captain's quarters. However, the most surprising thing of all was that in the place of one of his advisors, sat Darkspyro.

"Don't just stand there, please, pull up a chair. The captain and I were just playing blackjack," said Darkspyro, as the captain drew a card from the deck.

The four of them sat down and the captain dealt them five cards each. "We have about twenty minutes before we have to set off for the tournament," he explained, simultaneously laying a two of spades on Darkspyro "So we should be able to play through at least three or four games. Ship captain Roaran the beer-bellied, at your service." Standing up and reaching across the table, he shook hands with Spyro and Cynder before taking a seat once more.

As the five of them played cards together, the captain's ape servants served a mighty feast, and he told the two dragons what the situation was.

"You see, our advisory system works on the basis that as soon as a human advisor, of which I'd have two, dies, both he and the surviving one are replaced by the next two in line. In this case, those two were Samson Wyvernshedder and Jack sharphammer here. Their chosen three non-human but still literate advisors will then also take a place at my side. In this case, those chosen three advisors are you."

"So we get five of the highest ranking jobs on the entire ship?" asked Spyro, whilst making cynder miss a go with an eight.

The captain nodded and drew a card. "Precisely. Not only that, but you will also be given the best quarters on the ship, just like mine but without the additions I've made. All five of you will have a custom-built armoury and twenty apes apiece at your full disposal as from your official promotion, taking place later today. However, all of this will only happen if you survive the rest of today's tournament."

"Well I suppose that's a given, considering dead advisors are perhaps a little useless at advising." Smiled Cynder, casual to the threat of death as ever.

The six of them laughed and continued playing cards. All of them were experienced with death enough to appreciate just being alive.

Having finished their feast and the fourth game of blackjack, the six of them stood up and left the table. One of the captain's apes asked him if he would like an escort to the arena, but Roaran the beer-bellied shook his head and dismissed his servant.

"_Rightly so…"_ Thought Spyro, almost in awe as he saw the captain's full form for the first time. His arms were like logs, his shoulders twice as wide as any other man's and his beer-belly toned to the point of becoming a massive eight-pack. Standing eight feet tall, he had perfect posture, whilst upon his back rested two iron great-clubs in sheaths made of leather strap.

"Let's get going then!" Said Roaran, enthusiastically leading the way as the six of them left his quarters and headed for the tournament once more. As they walked through the ship's halls, Samson slipped a weapon out of his back pocket and discreetly passed it to Spyro. After the captain had diverted to his seat in the tournament's viewing area, jack explained.

"You shouldn't have this until you're officially an advisor, but you may just need it. This special pistol will only kill wyverns. We have go now before we lose our seats, but remember; wyverns." The two humans diverted, leaving Spyro and cynder to wonder what they had meant.


	17. Chapter 17: the samurai's monster

Chapter 17: the samurai's monster

After re-preparing themselves for battle, Spyro and Cynder once again stepped out into the sunlight of the ship's massive arena, this time to immediate applause as the crowd instantly recognised them. Once the captain had finished announcing their entrance, the gate at the other end of the arena opened and a huge shape emerged from the comparative darkness.

Spreading its wings whilst its seven-and-a-half foot tall rider drew his great katana from the sheath upon his back one handed, the dragon-wyvern hybrid loosed a great roar from which protruded huge tongues of searing blue flame, as the dark crystal embedded in its chest gleamed in the daylight.

Gently beating its wings so it rose into the air, it shot forward in a corkscrew as both of its opponents did the same. In the milliseconds of them flying toward each other, Spyro and Cynder coated themselves in elemental energies, his of fire and earth whilst hers were of wind and shadow. As they met with their mighty opponent, there was a huge flash of white light and a shockwave blasted through the entire arena. As the eyes of both the combatants and spectators came back in to focus, they were met with a scene of almost unbelievable proportions. The almighty samurai was now standing in front of his mount, which was also completely unfazed by their opponent's attack.

The warrior stood with his hands each suspending one of his adversaries by the head. Bashing them into each other with a "CRACK", he threw both of them to the side before again unsheathing his sword.

As the pair struggled to their feet, he began to advance with his weapon raised. As Spyro evaded his first swipe with a gambol, the swordsman quickly picked up speed and attacked Cynder with a flurry of swipes and stabs, which she could only dodge backward. Before he had the chance to assist her, Spyro was converged upon by the samurai's enormous mount. Evading its flames, he soon realised that it was durable to the point where his physical attacks would tire him out more than damage his foe. Its own combination of attacks and powerful flame breath also disallowed him the time and situation needed to perform a heavyweight manoeuvre against it, whilst the creature's one elemental attack was so powerful that it could neutralise any of his own.

As Spyro was attempting to deal with his own problems, Cynder saw a gap in her adversary's strikes and took advantage. Punching him in the throat with all her might, the black dragoness simply bounced off of his armour, which turned out to be made of great rope. As she rebounded off of him, the samurai thumped her in the stomach before clotheslining her with the butt of his blade.

The warrior stood over his helpless foe with his sword raised in the air, poised for the final strike. Simultaneously, a weapon fell from underneath Spyro's wing. It was the wyvern slaying gun. It had to be worth a shot. Grabbing it and throwing himself backward to avoid his foe's next lunge, the purple dragon pulled the trigger.

The creature shot backward, its dark crystal exploding in mid-air before it landed with a loud thud. The huge samurai swayed, then fell backward onto the hard arena floor. The wyvern-dragon hybrid writhed about in agony before lying still like its rider. As Spyro and Cynder got back to their feet, the samurai's armour thinned whilst his sword and helmet vanished and his eyes changed colour from black to blue.

The monster glowed and shrank, shape-shifting into the form of a normal dragon. The crowd just gaped in astonishment. Confused, Spyro walked over to Cynder and helped her up, before inspecting the samurai. Leaning down and giving him a gentle shake, he smiled as his former foe's eyes came into focus.

Sitting up and looking around, he gave a nod of thanks and a handshake to Spyro as he and Cynder helped him up. Raising their hands in the air in the sign of their victory, he congratulated them as the crowd cheered even more than earlier on.

Spyro looked over to their friends Samson and Jack in the crowd, who were clapping, and Samson winked.


	18. Chapter 18: an unwelcome surprise

Chapter 18: an unwelcome surprise

Having received their applause, the two dragons and their former opponents returned to the combatant preparation area, where once more they met Samson and jack.

"Well done you two," praised jack, almost in awe of what the pair of dragons had just achieved. "Our samurai friend here and his dragon ally have long been famed for the demonizing curse which Malefor placed on them during his reign of darkness. So violent was the transformation it caused that no combatant has ever managed to defeat them and therefore release them… until now."

The samurai shook hands with each of the four before excusing himself from their company in order to comfort his dragoness companion and return to their quarters.

As jack continued giving both praise and advice to the pair, Samson gave a half-smile and Spyro casually slipped the wyvern slaying gun back to him whilst seemingly keeping his attention on jack.

"Well then," Samson butted in "The pair of you have a two-on-two match against a pair of randomly selected opponents, whom will not know who each other are until their blindfolds are removed in the arena. Both of you will also be blindfolded until you enter the arena, so you will not know your opponents until the fight starts."

The two dragons nodded as they faintly heard the bellowing voice of ship captain Roaran the beer-bellied announcing their next fight. After their friends had wished them luck and began to walk back to their seats, the pair were promptly blindfolded and led out into the arena.

As their blindfolds were removed, they could see two dark, blurry shapes about ten metres away whilst their eyes struggled to come back into focus.

To their shock, the randomly selected opponents were Darkspyro and Darkcynder, who were now also struggling to focus on one another. Just as the dark dragoness recognized her designated ally, she was met with a hard punch to the head, knocking her out cold. As she fell backward there was a gasp from the crowd.

Advancing to kill her with a second strike, he was suddenly restrained by Roaran himself as a horde of captains dragged away his felled opponent. The ship captain had leaped twenty feet from his heightened central seat to intervene. As Darkcynder disappeared through an emergency exit gate, carried by the swarm of captains which had picked her up from the arena floor, Roaran declared the fight a draw.

As the crowd puzzled over whether they should cheer or boo the three dragons, Roaran called down Samson and jack from their seats, declared the tournament over, and walked back with his five companions to their respective quarters.


	19. Chapter 19: the next day

Chapter 19: the next day

After getting up and washing his face in the silver water basin that stood in their satisfyingly large bathroom, Spyro went back into the bedroom to wake Cynder. As the dragoness sat up and rubbed her left eye, she shook her head and stretched.

"I need a bath…" she murmured, scratching her thigh. "It's been five damn days since I last washed. Care to join me?" Spyro raised an eyebrow and smiled.

"Why did you even ask? I was going to come in with you anyway. Shall we have breakfast while the water runs?" his lover nodded and got up from the edge of the bed.

As the bathwater ran, Cynder fried twenty-two fine steaks over a large stove made of ion steel and heated by the fire Spyro had made underneath. Spyro sat conversing with an ape whom he had found, to his surprise, to be perfectly literate.

"You are very kind, sir. Never have we been served steak without having to work hard for it. What may I do to return the favour?" the ape asked, smiling.

"Well, go and get the others in here and help set the table. Once that's done, we can have a quick game of cards before breakfast, if you're up for it?" replied Spyro, as his new acquaintance nodded in agreement to this prospect.

As the apes set the table, Spyro shuffled the pack. To his astonishment, the ape not only beat him in the first game but also made a wager that if Spyro won, he would read his future with sacred blood cards. Spyro agreed and put down his titanium sword as his own wager. After the agreed five matches, Spyro emerged victorious, so he picked one of the hundred blank cards in the pack. Making a tiny incision on his forearm, he let a single drop of blood fall onto the card. As it was absorbed, a thousand tiny symbols formed upon it.

"It says… of five great births, only one shall survive, owing to the very force that destroyed those other four. The living darknesses and their accursed predecessors will rise and unite from every chasm in the reformed world to serve their new master, who shall become invincible if he rises at the hand of the corrupt great birth and he from whom he descended." The ape looked up to see everyone staring at him and the blood card, whilst the symbols evaporated from it.

"What the fuck is that meant to mean?" asked Cynder, breaking the silence.

Spyro scratched his neck and shrugged. "I don't know what it means either Cyn, but we can guess. Anyway, the way it sounded suggested that it would be obvious when this string of events begins to unfold. At least we know what to look for."

The black dragoness shrugged and dished out the steaks, bread and mead as Spyro re-sheathed his sword. After everyone finished eating, Spyro and Cynder dismissed their ape companions and retired to the bathroom, locking the door behind them.

The bath was about twenty inches deep and perfectly circular, with a diameter of about two metres. A fine steam floated just above the surface of the water, which pleasantly reminded both dragons of the night they had spent on the island in the river. Floating over to her lover, Cynder intertwined her tail around his and sat astride him. Slowly she ran her tongue up his underbelly before spreading her wings and kissing his neck. Interlocking tongues, the pair rolled over and tightened their hold on each other as the dragoness allowed her lover inside her for the first time. As they closed their eyes, their toes curled.

_Half an hour later… _

As the door creaked open, Roaran the beer-bellied dropped down from his chin-up bar and was met with the sight of two of his advisors. That made a full house; Darkspyro was already boxing with some of the apes in a corner, just as Samson and Jack were playing cards with some others at the table. As the ship captain wiped the sweat from his brow, he and his five advisors sat in council to discuss the next tournament. Once more the apes were temporarily dismissed.

After they had discussed the next tournament, the six called the apes back in to spar once again. Whilst Spyro and Roaran sparred hand-to-hand, Cynder and Samson fought with long-swords as Darkspyro and jack acrobatically wrestled each other.

After another hour and ten minutes of sparring, everyone had a rest and conversed for a while. Out of the blue Spyro had a realization.

"Oh shit… we haven't contacted anyone in the temple since we got here. They'll have no idea where we are!"

Roaran smiled. "I do believe we have a solution to that particular problem… follow me."

Leading the five through two more of his rooms, Roaran shifted an armchair that had sat flat to the floor to reveal a turnable handle embedded in the wood. Inserting a key, he twisted it to lift upward a concealed trapdoor. As his five advisors gaped, Spyro took note that the trap door was a foot thick and reinforced. Entering the tunnel, they were fascinated to find that it was fully reinforced and lit with energised gemstones jutting out from the walls. The moment Roaran shut the trapdoor and turned the key, the hefty armchair slid back into place above them.

Walking the five metres to the end of the corridor, the six of them paused for Roaran to undo another twisting lock before walking up a spiral staircase that extended upward another five metres.

Opening a final trapdoor, they emerged into a small room with an area of about twelve square metres. As soon as they had exited from the staircase into the room, Roaran slid a throne over the trapdoor from behind it so that it sat in front of the granite desk in front. To their left sat a luxurious five-seater black leather sofa with a right-angle bend in the middle and a footrest in front of each seat. In front of where they were standing sat a huge bookshelf that extended from one side of the room to the other and from the floor to the ceiling. To the right, between the bookshelf and granite desk was a massive window of metre thick glass.

Everyone in the room but Roaran was dumbfounded. As Spyro opened his mouth to ask what the window was made of, Roaran grinned and answered before he had even begun to speak. "It's made of glimmerglass, a naturally ventilated super-dense substance that can be seen out of in perfect clarity, but when looked at from the other side imitates the substance which it is embedded in to the point of absolution. It's also bullet-proof, heat-proof and shatter proof."

"Amazing…" said Cynder in awe.

"So, are we going to get on with this or not?" asked jack, curious of Roaran's solution to their friends' problem.

"Of course my friend, just bear with me a minute while I fetch what we need." Roaran replied, striding over to the bookshelf. Reaching up to the top shelf, the ship captain took a book and a black marble square and placed them on the granite desk. Opening the book, he found four small green gems, which he placed into the four corresponding indents on the square. Turning to the one-hundred-and-sixth page in the book, he slid it across the desk to Spyro, along with the square.

Reading aloud as the book intended, Spyro cleared his throat and pronounced the spell…


	20. Chapter 20: phoning home

Chapter 20: phoning home

"Ruune tru aer ann lactresty nitto tyr boed, ndd metralse pne tyr ffrtn acv sprxien nu!"

The air crackled with red electricity as Spyro spoke these forgotten words, transforming and splitting him into a million energised particles that swarmed into the marble board and absorbed into it without trace. Roaran tapped the board to see if it had been transformed into some sort of portal, yet to his surprise it had undergone no such change; it was as solid as the desk it sat on.

_Meanwhile, at the dragon temple…_

There was a flash of light and Sparx was thrown backward into a wall. A million energised particles smashed together one by one, slowly yet violently reforming into a seemingly peculiar shape. As they all clicked into their more specific places at once, Sparx rose back into the air and rubbed his head. As he looked up, his eyes met with those of his lifelong best friend and soul brother: Spyro.

"Shit Spyro, you sneaky fuck! How the hell…?" Sparx the dragonfly was for once lost for words.

"Easy Sparx," said Spyro, trying to calm his friend down so he could answer the question. "It's only a communication spell. I know it gave off one hell of a blast to indicate otherwise, but that's all it really is. How are you?"

Now over his initial panic attack, Sparx replied in his normal tone. "I'm just fine buddy, but for fuck's sake try not to make me shit myself again anytime soon. Is there anything in particular that you wanted to tell or ask me?"

Spyro nodded. "Yeah actually, can you take me to Ignitus? There are some things I need to discuss with him." Sparx nodded and led Spyro through three of the temple's rooms to Ignitus's dojo.

Exploding five medium sized apes with a barrage of firebombs, Ignitus back-flipped, landing on a dreadwing and hauling it into a group of charging grublins. Now on solid ground once more, he smashed together two deathhounds before tossing them into a large ape five metres away, then charging it and breaking his neck with a powerful flying punch to the cheekbone. Spinning around, he met the challenge of four hostile pirates wielding swords. By means of throwing himself backward onto the floor he kicked their swords from their hands over his head, then thrust his legs upward to once again land on his feet. Clotheslineing the centre left one, he spin-kicked the centre right in the temple before double-chokeslamming the remaining two onto the dojo floor so hard that it broke their respective spines.

Cracking his knuckles, the elder of fire yawned and scratched the back of his neck, glancing around at the dematerialising bodies before turning to face his apparent spectators. "Good afternoon Spyro. What would you like to talk about?"

Ignitus gave a placid smile as Spyro explained what had befallen them on their journey back, and by the same virtue their amazing good luck once they had come upon the ship. "So would you mind if we stayed a while then?" the purple dragon finally asked.

"Of course not," replied the fire dragon, leading the pair out onto the reconstructed observation platform. "But you have to understand that Malefor's heart must be removed from your chest by force. When I have torn it from you, I will then kill you in order to send you back. After that, you may have six months more upon the ship before you return with Cynder and Darkspyro. If I fail, the same applies. Ready?" Spyro nodded.

Drawing a sword from a small boulder at the edge of the platform that had been forged of a mix of titanium and Malefor's dark crystal, "_The Reaper"_, the fire dragon thrust it straight into Spyro's chest. The purple dragon's eyes widened. As energized particles broke off from him Spyro uttered just three words.

"Ignitus…wrong heart…" letting out a single breath, he fell forwards, yet only the sword had the chance to clank upon the ground as he vaporized.


	21. Chapter 21: reawakened

Chapter 21: reawakened

"Yes, she became comatose at the precise point she should have woken up," said doctor Hrill, as hospital chief Yonar contemplated whether to sign a particular death certificate or not.

"Is it of the type that can only be treated with magic?" asked Yonar before making his verdict.

"Indeed. And we can't do that because of the only ward left unbroken from recent battles happens to be the one that blocks spells from working on her." Hrill replied, an almost saddened expression upon his face.

"Such a shame…she had more potential than you could shake a shitty stick at." sighed Yonar as he signed the death certificate.

Out of nowhere a maroon mist surrounded their patient, just as Yonar had laid the death certificate upon her chest. A voice that sounded both sinister and slightly seductive emanated from the cloud, piercing the silence with a frightening clarity.

"There is no such thing as potential, my dear non-believers. The history of your ship captain should have taught you that; I know for a fact that upon his entrance into adulthood at the age of sixteen he stood a only six feet tall and weighed a meagre ten stone. Now he stands two feet taller and quadruple that weight. There is no potential, only base ability. And very similar rules apply when you decide to just call someone dead…"

The death certificate, now also enveloped by the mist, burst into flame, not even leaving so much as a black mark behind. As the eyes of both Yonar and Hrill widened in awe at the spectacle, their patient's eyes flicked open and she sat bolt upright without the aid of bending her legs or using her arms. In their moment of shock, she uttered some choice words from her reasonable vocabulary of spells; "oun dru ra tboh ndru!" both men collapsed on the floor.

Rolling her head around her collarbone and flexing her muscles, the patient rolled off of the bed in which she had only moments ago been considered dead. Picking up hospital chief Yonar as carefully as she could, she put him back into his seat and used magic to lock the door at the other end of the comatose treatment room, before preceding to reseat Hrill. That done, she created a solid hologram of herself on the bed and gave the men their instructions.

"You will remember the story of Roaran that I told you and know that it is true. Every change that my presence makes to this room you will both dismiss as your own doing and will not initially notice while they are happening. You will remember nothing of the mist or me waking up, and will restart your conversation. You will think in full that the being on this bed is me and will not in any way sense the real me or my presence. When I click my fingers you will wake up. Nubrn htee ppare." The death certificate re-materialized in Yonar's hand and she walked over to the window, opening it and then clicking her fingers.

As she was about to leave, she couldn't help herself but pause to listen to their conversation for the second time.

"Yes, she became comatose at the precise point she should have woken up," said doctor Hrill, as hospital chief Yonar contemplated whether to sign a particular death certificate or not.

"Is it of the type that can only be treated with magic?" asked Yonar before making his verdict.

"Indeed. And we can't do that because of the only ward left unbroken from recent battles happens to be the one that blocks spells from working on her." Hrill replied, an almost saddened expression upon his face.

"Such a shame…she had more base ability than you could shake a shitty stick at." sighed Yonar as he signed the death certificate.

With a twisted smile, Darkcynder unlocked the door with magic and took flight.


	22. Chapter 22: coming back to life

Chapter 22: coming back to life

A thousand particles flowed back out of the black marble, reforming into the purple dragon as he fell forward onto the floor, only just sticking his hands out quick enough to save him from smashing into it.

Panting, he got to his feet whilst the gems in the marble square disintegrated. So soon as he had regained his breath, Spyro stood up straight and told everyone what they wanted to hear; "We have six months!"

Roaran, Darkspyro, Samson and Jack cheered whilst Cynder simply walked over and kissed him to show her appreciation. Having done what they had meant to, they replaced the book and marble square before going back through the trapdoors and tunnel to Roaran's main quarters. Once there, they had only just re-concealed the trapdoor and unlocked the door into the room when there was banging at the main door.

Briskly walking back into the meeting room, they seated themselves before Roaran called for the apparent visitor to enter. A human pirate whom stood about six feet and nine inches rushed in, panting. Having caught his breath, he gave the apparently important message; "Darkcynder has been announced dead due to an apparently unbreakable coma caused by Darkspyro's attack in the arena. She is to be thrown from the ship into the lands and seas below. We need both your presences, approvals and for one of you to do the honours."

The six looked at each other before giving a nod and allowing the messenger to lead the way. After heading out of Roaran's quarters, they passed through a multitude of hallways before making their way up through the decks to the designated platform. Once there, they were presented with Darkcynder's comatose body. After much thought, they came to the agreement that it should be Darkspyro to do the honours. Walking forward with her in his arms, he stood on the edge of the platform before suddenly yet calmly doing something which he couldn't explain; he kissed her on the lips, then slowly let her slip from his hold to roll down his arms and fall into what those far below would consider the sky.

As they all bowed their heads and turned around, they were all suddenly awestruck. Taking advantage of this, the being standing there continuously shot from the sides inward, slaughtering all present but the centre six. However, as the blazing handguns were on the brink of killing the six most important people there, something as awe striking as what had just caused the demise of the rest happened in these warriors' favour.

Spectacularly, Roaran the beer-bellied front-flipped over all five of his advisors and landed perfectly, iron great-clubs drawn in a protective "X" shape. As the bullets ricocheted off of the weapons, Spyro slid between the ship captain's legs and threw two knives at their opponent. As she was disarmed of her own weapons by the blades striking her wrists, their adversary looked up just in time to see Jack fly down from above after running up Roaran's back and bring his heel down on her jaw. However, the last moment of this enemy's brief life came when Cynder used a miniature tornado to send Samson flying around the side of Roaran and shoot their opponent straight through the heart. As she dropped to her knees and fell forward onto the deck, Darkcynder was no more.

Re-sheathing their respective weapons, the six sighed in relief. They had not won, however. The second they had let the air gush from their lungs, they heard the distinctive noise of splintering wood to their left. Each turning on their heels to face it, they heard the same sound from every other direction practically simultaneously. They could do nothing but stare in horror as one hundred Darkcynder's emerged through the wooden deck, forcing their way upward from beneath with viciousness matched only by how terrifying the scene was as a whole.

Having emerged like the un-dead from the deck, the hundred fiends each rose into the air one by one, surrounded by dark energy. Once they were all levitating at the same level, they opened their eyes simultaneously, unleashing a massive synchronised blast of dark energy. Upon the last second, Roaran, Samson, Spyro, Cynder and Jack felt a sudden tendril of telepathic force lock itself onto their minds. Opening their eyes, they gasped as they each saw a huge shield of mixed energies. A perfectly non-self-destructive amalgation of fire, ice, earth, electricity, wind, strength, intellect, acrobatic-ness, endurance, fear, poison, darkness energy, shadow, courage, rage and convexity.

Tilting their heads slightly they also saw Darkspyro levitating in the centre of it and them. As he threw his head backward, a single one of the hundred dark beings whose own powers were being resisted by this ultimate shield shot upward into the sky, escaping unscathed by a hair's breadth as Darkspyro made the shield explode outward, vaporizing each and every one of their other ninety-nine attackers into dispersed atoms.

As Darkspyro's mind retracted from each of theirs once more, his five friends rushed over to him, reaching their faithful companion just moments after he had plummeted from the air to land heavily on all-fours upon the deck. Struggling to keep himself from falling forward onto his face whilst he hyperventilated, he managed a triumphant laugh as Roaran patted him on the back.

So soon as he had recovered enough to stand up straight, he looked at Jack and asked, "Why did only one of them seek to escape? Ninety-nine were vaporized as only one took flight."

Jack shook his head, face grave. "I'm afraid that those were solid projections of the real Darkcynder that she created using magic, including the one that killed the others and the one which we thought was her to start with. The one that took flight was the _real _Darkcynder, and the reason the others didn't follow suit is because solid embodiment projections will always follow their given orders until they are destroyed. Unfortunately, therefore, the one responsible for all of this was the only one that escaped."

Darkspyro let out a deep sigh. "It would seem that the only thing we can do now is go back to our quarters and await a well deserved lunch." The others nodded and began to walk back to the staircase that lead down through the decks. For some reason he couldn't explain, Roaran stayed a moment longer, looking up at the place where Darkcynder had disappeared into the few clouds above. After just a few seconds he turned on his heel to rejoin the others, an ice-cold shiver running down his spine.


	23. Chapter 23:fighting darkness at midnight

Chapter 23: fighting darkness at midnight

Roaran woke with a start. Drops of ice-cold sweat moistened his forehead. Sitting up in bed, he ran a hand through his hair before rolling off of the side the mattress and pulling on his trousers.

Cracking open a cask of beer, he took a couple of substantial mouthfuls, then wiped his lips and resealed it. Slipping into a vest, he glanced at the oak clock mounted on one wall of his room. It was midnight. Having put on the rest of his clothes, the ship captain walked out of his quarters and through the many halls of his magnificent air arena until he came across the very staircase that he had descended just a few hours before.

After using that staircase, he now found himself on the top deck. Closing his eyes for a moment, he held his head up and inhaled the cool air. As he opened his eyes again, the first sight he was met with was Darkcynder, standing just ten feet away.

Suddenly charging, she smashed into Roaran with all the power she could muster. Roaran was forced into putting a single foot one pace behind the other as his opponent ricocheted off almost harmlessly. Turning backward momentum into force, the dark dragoness swept the ship captain's other foot from under him before jumping up to meet his face with both of her knees as he plummeted forward. Regaining his balance, Roaran tackled his foe to the floor before rolling over, pulling her to her feet and picking her up over his head. Throwing Darkcynder upward with ease, Roaran jumped up and grabbed the dark dragoness in mid-air, thrusting his shoulder into the small of her back as they fell.

Smashing through the thick wooden floor, they landed in a fairly large room. As the combatant whose room it was screamed, Darkcynder rolled out from underneath Roaran and slit her throat. Spinning around to face her foe again, she was met with a flying clothesline that sent both of them through the floor a second time. Landing in a deep bath, they struggled to gain superiority over one another, Roaran easily besting the comparatively weak dragoness and plunging her underwater. As the last of her breath escaped, Darkcynder unleashed a darkness fury, obliterating the bath they were in and sending them through several walls thanks to the fact that Roaran not only survived, but also kept a grip on his foe.

Landing, they leapt to their feet to find that they were in the quarters of the formerly corrupted samurai and his dragoness mount. Spin-kicking the samurai into his fighting partner, Darkcynder immobilized them temporarily with a bolt of darkness energy before evading an attack from Roaran, to whom she then delivered a flurry of her hardest blows to every place possible.

Snapping back into his stance completely undamaged from the assault, Roaran delivered a single palm-strike to his opponent, carrying them both through the locked door as she gripped him at the shoulders with tendrils of darkness energy. Bursting out through the other side of the door and smashing downward through the hallway floor, Darkcynder relinquished the tendrils in order to focus all of her power into her legs, which she thrust into Roaran's chest as she rolled backward.

Flying through the locked doors of the air arena's huge dining hall, Roaran landed on a table capable of seating five-hundred people at any one time… and went straight through it, snapping it clean in two. Clicking her dislocated legs back into place, Darkcynder walked into the dining hall and over to the far side. Having opened a window, she grabbed an apparently knocked-out Roaran by his shoulders and dragged him across the room. Just metres away from the open window, Roaran's eyes flicked open. Grabbing his exhausted foe by the head, he smashed his own bone-conditioned skull against hers thrice, causing her to lose consciousness as she tumbled to the floor. Leaping to his feet once more, he dragged his opponent to her own feet before picking her up above his head and tossing her out of it into the skies below.


	24. Chapter 24: four months later

Chapter 24: four months later

_Four months later… _

Cynder screamed. Laying an egg might be easier than giving birth to a live baby, but that really isn't saying much.

"Just one more push Cyn, you're doing great." Spyro said, reassuring her as well as he could.

"Easy for you to say… but you're not squeezing something the size of a small melon out of you're fucking bell end, are you?" she replied, causing both her and her egg's father to involuntarily smirk in spite of the situation. However, Spyro proved to be correct, and after just one more push the source of her pain popped out. The pair smiled at each other before placing the egg upon a cushioned pedestal. As Spyro turned to face his lover once more, he was met with a passionate kiss that almost made him fall over backwards.

Opening their eyes and unlocking lips, they each let out a deep breath before Cynder spoke. "It's a bloody good job that laying an egg doesn't do to a dragoness any of the unfavourable things that giving birth to a live child does to a human female, else I would probably be trying to punch that face of yours rather than kiss it." The pair burst out laughing, then let each other go and wondered out of their room, locking the door behind them.

Heading out of their quarters, they opened the door to leave when they were suddenly met with the cheers of Samson, Jack, Roaran and Darkspyro, along with all of the ape servants, plus the samurai (accompanied by his dragoness mount), all of whom had been waiting outside their door for some time. Entering Roaran's quarters, they all feasted like kings, sparred for an hour while their food went down, and then drank from chalices supplied with liquid by a huge cask of wonderfully cold beer, courtesy of Roaran. Settling down to a game of cards in which the deck, by necessity, was composed of ten times the number of cards as a standard one, they happily chatted away and drank deep, occasionally sparring in between games.

This continued until midday, when they trooped down to watch a very, very special tournament indeed… all except Roaran, for he himself, ship captain Roaran the beer-bellied, was to be the star of today's special single fight tournament. And hell, this was going to be one fight that no-one present would ever forget.

Since his fight with Darkcynder, he had intensified his training ten fold. His goal: to fight three beings of the same sort that Spyro had on numerous occasions, each of them nine feet tall, surpassing thirty stone in weight and with the correct weight distribution upon their torsos to be classed as ultra-heavyweight. On top of this, they would be heavily armed and armoured whilst he, already surpassed in the fields of height and numbers, would be both unarmed and un-armoured.

However, his training had paid off. Roaran's beer belly was now twice its weight before he had intensified his training, yet had been so toned that it took up exactly the same volume of space and was now a ten-pack. Every muscle on his body was now in a state of being one-hundred percent tensed all the time, while still able to contract and detract without added restriction of movement. His shoulders were also a foot wider, due to the fact that he had developed each of his pectoral muscles to the size of his beer-belly, causing them to protrude outward and past the sides of it by three inches. His veins popped out of his arms, thickened by increased exercise to the point of being beyond the ability of a knife to sever. He now weighed in at sixty stone, or eight-hundred and fifty pounds if you prefer, but would it be enough?

Doing all the stretches he could think of and breaking the five punch bags he had ordered, he now got into position behind the gate and waited for his introduction (he had given the introductory duty, usually performed by himself, to Spyro for this match). He didn't have to wait long.

Stepping up to stand upon the highest point in the air-arena spectator area alongside Cynder, Spyro put the microphone to within a few inches of his mouth and began the announcement. "Hello, spectators! I, as you may know, am Spyro, and I'll be you're announcer for today!" the crowd cheered. "So, today we have a very special tournament for you to see, a battle that may reverberate back through the ages and never be forgotten…for tonight, my friends, some of the greatest forces on this ship will clash in an almighty show of sheer power! Shall we bring them out now?" the crowd chanted "bring them out! Bring them out! Bring them out" before erupting into cheers as the first gatekeeper cranked it open at Spyro's gesture.

The three humanoid beings, nine feet tall, ultra heavyweight and as armed and armoured as could be as promised, stepped out into the ring. Spyro introduced them. "each standing over nine feet tall, classing as ultra heavyweight and firmly united against their opponent tonight, THREE CHARGES OF MURDER!" the crowd once more erupted into cheers as the trio switched to their battle stances.

Smiling, Spyro waited for the crowd's cheers to die down before introducing Roaran. "and now I give you, weighing in at exactly sixty stone and standing eight feet tall, the very man I'm standing in for and your ship captain, ROARAN THE BEER-BELLIED!" as the gate was cranked open the crowd mustered twice the applause they had given at the trio's introduction. However, Roaran was nowhere to be seen. The cheering died down and everyone looked confused. The trio took a step forward. Everyone squinted at the darkness between the gates; Roaran had turned the lights off in the combatant preparation area when he had been breaking punch bags around five minutes before.

Out of nowhere, Roaran smashed straight through the section of wall next to the open gateway, surprising his opponents as much as it was possible to. Striding toward them at a furious pace, he leaped into the air just a few metres away from the trio. Deflecting the thrusting swords of two of the trio in mid-air with his feet, Roaran now twisted around to land on the third horizontally, knocking the being clean over and winding him badly.

Rolling to his feet, Roaran struck one in the face with his elbow, punched the other in the gut and disarmed him with a kick to the wrist. Spinning around, he now backhanded his other standing opponent across the face, causing him to twist around, before kicking his legs out from under him. Facing his other, doubled-over opponent, he picked this being up on his shoulders, wrenched him in that position, and smashed him down onto the floor in front of him face-first. Allowing each of his opponents to rise again, he moved to block a powerful strike from the sword of one of them with his forearm, right where his main artery was… and yet to both his and the crowd's surprise, he sustained no damage whatsoever!

Now confident, he disarmed both who were armed and broke their swords over one knee. Folding his arms, he simply waited. The trio looked at each other, in confusion. Moving to punch him, one smirked when he did not retaliate, only to realise that the blow had had no effect. Frowning, he gestured to the others. Within the space of a few seconds, all three of them were delivering a constant flurry of their hardest blows, only to be repelled by their foes enormously well toned, tensed, and bone conditioned body, until all of their energy was exhausted.

Springing into action, Roaran kicked the middle one in the stomach, temporarily disabling him, whilst grabbing the other two by their respective heads. Raising them into the air, he smashed their skulls together, knocking them both out, before throwing them away to each side of him. Charging forward, he grabbed the third and in the same swift movement launched him ten feet into the air above his own head, knocking the armoured being out cold as he hit the ground behind his opponent. For a moment the crowd was gob-smacked, when suddenly Spyro broke the silence.

"Roaran is the winner!" the crowd once more erupted into ecstatic cheering. Roaran smiled and folded his arms, cracking his neck from side to side and receiving his applause. It had been a good day indeed… almost too much without incident. In fact, the last four months had gone by without anything particularly bad happening to him or any of his five advisors, a stark contrast to their usual lives for each of them.

And yet as he walked back into the combatant preparation area with the crowd still applauding, the very man who had proven every sceptic wrong and defeated all who had faced him in combat since his training had begun, felt a chill down his spine that worried even him.


	25. Chapter 25: complacency

Chapter 25: complacency

Roaran came through the door first, but did not see the being standing at the other end of Spyro and Cynder's quarters, where they had decided to feast today, as he laughed at Spyro's joke about the three beings he had just defeated in battle. He immediately realised his own mistake as he looked in front of himself, but it was already too late.

"Ssupdn gaisnat lalw nda ni het ria ot nloy ovme ta ym mcmonad!" Darkcynder shouted, and Roaran became suspended and helpless in the air as he was hit by a bolt of green energy from a pre-pointed sceptre. "Iteacduplic ni cacdornaec!" she now shouted, and Samson, Jack, Spyro, Cynder and Darkspyro were hit by identical bolts. Speaking normally this time, she said "Sap their strength to shatter the wall behind me. Let their words be heard but not their spells."

With that the six of them felt as if they were being drained, and this was true; threads of white energy streamed thinly from their chests into the far wall, and after this transference was complete there was a delay of around three seconds before the section of the ship's structure shattered outward into the passing sky. "I'd just like you to know, Roaran, that if you had seen me immediately as you came in, you would have had time to disarm me of this sceptre. Had this occurred, it would have cost me my life rather than you yours. Propel him from the ship via the breach!"

Of all the last words he could have picked… "Ah fuckshit!" and with that the mighty ship captain, sixty stone in weight and eight feet in height, was thrust past Darkcynder's right side and plummeted into the froth of cloud-dappled sky that extended for miles below his own air-arena, torn from his domain by the magic-infused command of his greatest adversary.

Spyro half-smiled. "You've become too complacent Darkcynder. All of that sceptre's energy is being used to suspend us in the air. Therefore you will be unable to fight or defend against attacks using wards while you continue to immobilize us…APES!"

The frenzied charge of the ape servants that they had trained and befriended for the last four months thundered down the outside hallway unmistakably. "clko het orod nda nefrcoe het lalw!" The door slammed shut and the locks shot into the wall, sticking fast. As the apes began to kick at the door, the dark dragoness turned to look directly at her un-demonic counterpart.

"Bring her toward me." The green aura surrounding Cynder intensified and she levitated toward Darkcynder, whereupon she was halted but two metres away. "Rnatfsrom ym onucrtarpt niot het Iteacduplicoin fo ym omts orwpulfe orfm ot adet nda psa het uro mndsi etbewne uro obisde, htne ervrte erh ot het orfm fo hwihc hes htnisk si erh rteuste!" The room, with that, was lightened intermittently with flashes of green light between which all present witnessed the reversion of Cynder into her much larger, former self, the switching of consciousnesses between the pair, and finally Cynder's transformation back into herself from the previous body of her dark counterpart.

Having been more ready for the effects of the spell than both Cynder and the others (all four of whom now dropped to the floor, free of the magic), Darkcynder snatched the sceptre from the floor onto which it had been dropped when her counterpart had lost her grip on it, bounded past Cynder in two strides and briefly span around to drive the sceptre into the floor just before she reached Spyro and Cynder's egg. The door splintered inward as the apes broke through. Shooting immediately and with what would've been great accuracy at Darkcynder, the bullets instead battered the green shield generated by the sceptre, destroying it but not reaching their target. As these events occurred the dark dragoness grabbed the egg and took flight through the breach, already too far away for the apes to shoot. Snapping out of their daze, Spyro and Cynder growled and took to the air, Darkspyro doing the same less than a moment later.

So desperate was their pursuit that they had flown clear from the entire pirate fleet in fifteen seconds flat. Darkspyro shot a blast of dark energy breath at one of the cannons conveniently pointing in the direction in which Darkcynder was heading. As planned, the cannon fired and Darkspyro intercepted it in mid-air, doubling his normal flight speed at the very least by grabbing onto it as it was propelled through the air and launching himself from the projectile before retaining the speed with his wings and catching up with Spyro and Cynder in doing so.

After another twenty seconds of strenuously intensive flight the trio caught clear sight of their foe. Using his power and imagination, Darkspyro shot a flurry of shadow bullets in her direction. With holes punched in her wing membrane, Darkcynder fell into the below tree-line (for they were now above land) with a spiralling dive before altering her wing angle by just enough to make a safe landing in a small clearing. Spyro, Darkspyro and Cynder flew downward to confront their adversary.

The instant they had landed in the clearing, Darkspyro shot a bolt of dark energy at Darkcynder, but this was cancelled out by a robe of flame that rose to shield his target before she had even turned around. As the opaque writhing flames dispersed, Darkcynder was revealed now hovering six inches above the ground and outlined by an unworldly white glow made unnerving by its semi-transparency.

The look on Darkspyro's face changed as he realised his mistake. Behind the other two members of their trio, two trees of great age and size folded to the ground without snapping, forming a triangle shape with the point behind them once a third to their side did the same at an angle so as to both hem them in from the front, but also knock Darkspyro aback with enough force to make him slam against the other folded trees and lose consciousness. As the glow around Darkcynder ceased, her wounds healed and she took flight. Before Cynder or Spyro could make their next move, the rest of the enormous trees at the edge of the clearing folded downward upon them. Now cocooned, the three dragons were plunged into darkness.


	26. Chapter 26: selfpromised vengeance

Chapter 26: self-promised vengeance

Spyro and Cynder could not tell if they were alive, dead, awake or asleep but from their sensing of the touch of both one another and the soft earth beneath their feet.

Holding Cynder's hand with his own left one so as to ensure that he knew her location inside their living wooden prison, the purple dragon drew his sword from underneath his wing and began to use the titanium blade to hack at the tree directly in front of them with his right hand. Having roughly carved the outline of a triangle big enough for him, Cynder or Darkspyro to fit through, Spyro now sheathed his sword and rammed into the wood with his shoulder until it popped free of the rest of the tree onto the rest of the clearing outside.

As the unconscious Darkspyro was being extracted from within the depths of the living wooden structure, Cynder stepped out into the clearing fully and allowed herself a moment to get used to the light. Once her eyes were in full focus, she took in the air and shed a solitary tear as she contemplated the loss of the egg that had contained an amalgam of her and Spyro. It was a given that the dragon chick would be infected with darkness and turned against them rather than killed. With both this and Roaran's death in mind, she swore to herself that she would have vengeance.

With the tear wiped from her cheek and Darkspyro retrieved, the two conscious dragons headed in the direction they had spotted a stream whilst still in flight. Once there, Darkspyro was rested against a tree a few yards away from the stream's bank whilst the other members of their trio took a moment to assess the situation.

"Right, what don't we have?" Spyro asked Cynder. The black dragoness shook her head. "Excluding your sword, everything. All our possessions were on the ship, including the bags from before we were taken there. If we're prioritising, we need food enough for two ordinary meals, at least one gem between us to refuel our energies and one to heal our wounds. Following that I'd say we'll need quarter of an hour to let the food go down and get our bearings, but with all these needs satisfied I believe there is enough daylight for us to make it back to the temple before sunset."

With their situation clarified, Spyro went into the forest to search for food whilst Cynder went about using her mind to locate the health and magic regenerating gems that they needed, simultaneously considering the best way to wake Darkspyro from his unconscious slumber.

After a short while, Cynder cupped a handful of water from the stream into her palms and splashed it over Darkspyro's face to wake him up, before sending him to retrieve the gems she had successfully located as Spyro returned carrying a stout three-tusked boar on his shoulders. After the gutting of the animal and Darkspyro's return, the trio roasted the meat over their fire (instantaneously lit by Spyro once he had refuelled his magic reserves) whilst replenishing their magic energy stores and healing their wounds with the gems, Cynder now flew above the canopy to get their bearings before Spyro served their feast of pork.

Once they had allowed themselves a quarter hour to digest the meal, the three of them finished absorbing the gems' energies and set off in the direction Cynder had devised, taking flight from a clearing with a better updraft a few hundred yards from their position at the stream's side. As the trio took flight, Darkspyro half-smiled, sensing that neither of his friends had the intention of staying at the temple for long.


	27. Chapter 27: reform of the dark army

Chapter 27: reform of the dark army

Having flown hard to get here so quickly, a smile spread onto Darkcynder's face. She had not been in her throne room at the summit of the concurrent skies fortress since her first real fight with Spyro. What's more, with the renewing of her original size and power she had now repossessed the credibility of her skill as a fighter and leader, this alone being enough to raise another army.

As she put the egg, inside which now dwelled an amalgam of her counterpart and the legendary purple dragon, onto the pedestal the dark dragoness swore to herself that she would not make the same mistake as the last time she and her adversary had fought.

There was no doubt that her underestimation of him was what had lost her the fight during the second encounter in which they had mutually engaged in hand-to-hand, flame-to-flame combat. On top of this, both armies raised by Malefor previously had been defeated and scattered, a squadron at a time, by Spyro and in the case of the grublins, her counterpart. The dark dragoness knew for a fact also, from her contacts, that Spyro had grown even stronger now. With all these circumstances combined, it was instantly apparent that she would need hard training and strong allies to be victorious.

To her advantage, though, there was now an abundance of veteran grublins and, providing that she lifted the curse that Malefor had placed on them, even hardier veteran apes. With the power of both the magic gems of the world and, following Malefor's return the corrupted forms of these, she knew for a fact that she was very capable of raising a new dark army, the likes of which, aided also in part by her contacts in the pirate fleet, would be stronger than all previous versions of itself combined.

So, then, Darkcynder picked up and pressed to her lips the horn of summoning left to her by Malefor during his reign for just such an occasion, and blew. Within the hour a flood of grublins arrived at the fortress, ready and waiting for any command. Leaping from her tower to land on the crystal covered, stone floor of the place in which the fortress resided, she issued the troops' first orders.

"Now, my allies, I ask of you that this fortress be disassembled on the inside without collapsing in accordance with this plan," Pausing to throw a scroll to one of the grublins, she now continued "Whilst you do so, I will rally my contacts in the pirate fleet and in other parts of the realm, retrieving Gaul's sceptre in the process. Everything you will need for the task ahead is in that room. Good luck."

As her speech concluded, the enormous doors to one of the fortress' rooms unbolted and swung outward. Before she could take flight, however, there was one more matter that needed addressing. A grublin with an enlarged shoulder plate stepped forward.

"I want to play no part in this." The creature said, bluntly. Darkcynder nodded before asking the rest "who does?" and receiving an enormous cheering response from the masses assembled as a result. "Are you sure?" the dark dragoness asked. The grublin confirmed his certainty with a nod.

Lashing out and virtually incapacitating the creature with a blow to the kidney using her right fist, she then grabbed him with her left hand by the throat and crushed it. The united crowd cheered as their new leader tossed the objector into the distance over her shoulder.

As her army made their way toward the supply room, Darkcynder took flight.


	28. Chapter 28: return to the temple

Chapter 28: return to the temple

After a league of flying over the vast mass of forest, in which their imprisonment at the hand of Darkcynder had taken place, the trio of dragons had found themselves chancing upon the route they had been following before the pirates and their foe had taken them to the air arena. Because of the direction that they had flown in, they now found that they were actually quite a ways up the route from the point of their capture around four-and-a-half months before.

Following another hour of their fastest flight from that point, Spyro, Cynder and Darkspyro touched down on the temple's observation platform. Greeted by Ignitus, they trooped inside to find the elders playing cards at an oak table with an enormously well built human. Never had they seen someone larger aside from Roaran.

Clasping hands with him in a strong handshake, Darkspyro sat down next to the human as he introduced himself. The man's name was Caisr. As Caisr dealt the trio and Ignitus each a hand, the elders and he explained that they had scryed them earlier in the day. With the knowledge that Roaran had been thrown from the air arena by Darkcynder, that she was now back to full strength and had stolen Spyro and Cynder's egg, Sparx had set out to assemble a raiding team for an attack on the Concurrent Skies fortress before the dark dragoness could construct an undefeatable army.

Standing only six feet tall barefoot in his natural stance but weighing in at a solid-toned fifth of a ton, Caisr was the first member of this team. An out-classer such as this tank of a man would be vital to a victory while breaking through the defences of such a fortress as that of their foe. Upon Sparx's return the team and every one of the temple's sentient inhabitants would begin training harder than they ever had before… but for now eating, breaking blocks and playing blackjack would suffice.

In spite of this momentary outlook, Spyro had a terrible urge to spar with the newcomer. Asking him thus and receiving confirmation, the dragon took up his stance as his opponent did the same. Caisr charged. Spyro unleashed a jet of flame, causing his opponent burns but not halting him. Bowled over, the dragon rolled to his left as his opponent drew his sword and struck down, before drawing his own sword at speed to block the human's sideways slice of a follow-up.

Changing his sword position whilst remaining in contact with Caisr's blade, the dragon used this lock to raise himself to his feet before breaking off to strike at the human's sword-arm elbow. Caisr blocked, parried a thrust from his foe as Spyro ducked underneath his sword, then struck toward the purple dragon's back from left to right. Having modified his back angle to be hit by the flat of Caisr's blade, a bruised Spyro then vaulted the weapon of assault backward before disarming his foe by pinning it to the ground with his own.

As Caisr moved in to put Spyro in an inescapable lock, the purple dragon changed the position of his arms and span on his heel, as a result hook punching the human with his right, gut punching with his left and straight punching to the face of his foe to finish. Caisr stumbled backward, but regained his balance and cracked his head to the left before moving in for a close-range strike with a charge as Spyro did the same.

When they collided, Spyro skidded backward and doubled over, severely winded from a punch to the stomach by Caisr. The human stumbled backward and leaned against a wall with a dislocated jaw, the result of Spyro's elbow smash to his face. After they had recovered, the pair decided to call it a draw and shook hands where they had met each other's wrath. Taking a seat each at the table once again, they resumed playing blackjack with the others.

Sparx, Spyro thought to himself, knew how to put a raiding party together indeed.


	29. Chapter 29: salvage

Chapter 29: salvage

Flying above the forests and shores, plains and swamps of the temple-island and chains of smaller, more isolated land masses spread across the seas of the dragon realms, Darkcynder paused in mid-air and hovered. With a half smile now upon her multi-fanged maw, the dark dragoness dived down onto the north-west beach of one such island. Once on the sands she took from her acquired pack a crystal of eighteen sides. Placing it upon the ground to her left, she gathered up a few chunks of driftwood in one hand and set alight to them with a jet of flame. That done, Darkcynder unbuckled Gaul's sceptre from her back and cast a spell upon the body six feet in front of her to ensure that it remained both incapacitated and alive, then rested until nightfall.

Upon the rising of the full moons, the dark dragoness held the crystal-of-eighteen-sides so that the light of both celestial bodies would shine through it onto the being in front of her. With a flash of light and a sound of cracking bones, the being was a moment later beside a dark copy of itself.

"Irse, Rrnao." Said Darkcynder, and the being rose to reveal both its face and physique. The dark dragoness handed it a pair of leggings, black dyed and composed of an assortment of fabrics and leather bandages; the sort that pirates of the air arena might wear if not for their colour – and a tight black vest. The being accepted them and put them on, along with some underwear of the same colour that came mid-way down his thighs underneath the leggings.

Once clothed, the being moved to address Darkcynder, but was cut short as she pushed a pair of steel toe-capped boots toward him. With gratitude, he put them on and tied the laces. Turning to face Darkcynder, he allowed her to examine him. To the dark dragoness only two things were apparently different between he who stood in front of her and he who lay behind that being in the grip of her spell. The first thing was that unlike any dark dragon, this human had retained his skin colour but still emanated an aura of dark energy, whilst the second was that, like Darkspyro's, his eyes were pure white.

"Hit that red oak." Said Darkcynder, gesturing toward the large tree behind her creation. The being turned on his heel, strode two paces and struck out in the direction of the mentioned tree of a five-foot diameter with a powerful right smash-punch. The oak splintered and its upper bulk bent over him dangerously. The being glanced at Darkcynder, who was now sat down, and received a wordless reply of a nod at the tree and a nod at the other version of the being that lay incapacitated nearby.

Teeth bared, the dark being barrel-rolled under the large branch to his left on his shoulder and rise to throw his full mass as well as strength into a side-kick diagonal to the tree's fracture. The oak broke from its roots and lower half to land with a damp "THUD" on ground to the right of the other man. The being then hefted his other form of equal mass and strength above his head and hurled the sixty-stone behemoth eighty feet from the shore into the crashing waves.

Pleased with her new ally's performance, Darkcynder poured into his mind the knowledge of how to reach her fortress by foot telepathically; he was too heavy for even her to carry at present.

Satisfied that he now knew the route, the dark dragoness took to the night air as the being set off through the forest below her.


	30. Chapter 30: remembrance

Chapter 30: remembrance

Roaran knew he was not dead. He was unable to explain, but he physically _recognised _the state of slumber he was in. Incapacitated, yes. Submerged, yes.

But alive.

Darkcynder had survived happenstances that should have killed her thrice; one of these had been at the hands of Roaran himself. With a sudden lurch of his stomach, the ship captain envisioned a memory that no-one but he and Cynder could possibly know of.

_Roaran was sat against the wall at the top of his bed, staring at the glittering emerald windows of his quarters as he swirled the beer in his cup with a gentle movement of his hand. A knock of minor volume sounded at the door. The ship captain strode two paces to the door of his bedroom and opened the oaken structure. Cynder stumbled into the quarters and leaned against his elbow. Thinking fast, Roaran snatched up a blanket and threw it over his bed, then hefted Cynder onto it. She had, with him present, miscarried four of her five eggs that night and, being as she was only a month into her pregnancy, they had managed to withhold the information from Spyro. Following the unfortunate event, he had cleaned her up, given her beer and held the dragoness for a long while, comforting her for her loss. When she was ready, Cynder had dried her eyes and smiled a little. "At least I still have one," she had said, unknowing that the darkness-saturated version of herself would rob her of even _that _small comfort in three months' time. Roaran had nodded and opened the door for her to depart, something that she did silently and with a determined look on her face._

Roaran's stomach lurched again, and he snapped back into both reality and consciousness. Waves, silver in colour when looking from underneath as he was, churned over him. The ship captain immediately knew that the spell used to incapacitate him was also keeping him alive; Darkcynder must have forgotten to relieve her magic and he had thus survived when he should have drowned.

Another memory flooded back to him, and Roaran recalled what had happened inside his knowing.

_Roaran had folded his arms across his chest and breathed carefully as he realised that Darkcynder had relieved her spell and left him to death by free-fall onto the lands below. As he broke through the lowest layer of cloud below, he glimpsed the glimmer of hope that was the sea directly below him and a golden shoreline perhaps less than fifty metres to the left of his direction of fall. As he had hit the water, which had caused him almost enough pain to black out, the ship captain had swam the distance to the shore in much less choppy conditions than those of the present and hauled himself from the path of the tide. Then, safe and capable if needs be, he had collapsed into a slumber._

So what had happened? Roaran could guess, but was unsure. What he knew for certain, however, that he had been incapacitated twice; although the spell now kept him alive, the ship captain would have to keep himself ready to swim to the surface until the spell was released and he had done so. Before he allowed himself back into his tense slumber, the human looked up, and thus to his detriment. Something of his mind was missing. And both moons were full.


	31. Chapter 31: arrival and departure

Chapter 31: arrival and departure

Spyro, Cynder, Darkspyro and the elders greeted Sparx and his assembled raiding party on the temple observation platform; half the party were dragons, and all of them large and strong enough to carry a human upon their backs, as all but one of them did. Once the group were inside, Caisr greeted the rider-lacking dragon with a mutual clasp of the forearm, having finished his sets of sit-ups, press-ups and chin-ups for the moment.

Spyro took a particular interest in a dragon by the name of Saaaen, who had developed control of both the heat and heat distribution of his fire breath to the point where he could cause an external explosion on the surface of any object or being that came into contact with it, providing it was the reaction he desired. The fire dragon, Spyro then learned, only ever spoke with his mind and was the only living being other than him to have destroyed a nature spirit without assistance.

Sarak, the human who both Darkspyro and Volteer spoke to immediately, proved interesting enough as well. Saaaen's rider, Sarak was not only a great inventor of violently and generally useful hardware but also an excellent fighter. The man was searching for both the betterment of the realms and to find his cousin, who shared his talents and had gone missing.

In spite of his enthusiasm to meet the members of the raiding party, something seemed wrong with Darkspyro. Cynder wandered over and greeted him, leading the dark dragon into the temple's kitchen where it was much quieter before asking him: "What's the matter friend? You've been acting strangely all day." Darkspyro shifted uncomfortably. "I'm not sure Cynder... something is wrong in a location far from here, I can sense it. I'd hazard a guess that it's to do with Darkcynder, but I also feel slightly depressed in myself. There has never been a battle involving more than a single dark dragon, as far as anyone is aware, and certainly two have never opposed each other. The battle that we are walking into will inevitably involve three including myself, and this makes the outcome and events between now and then completely unpredictable."

Cynder sighed. "There's something else isn't there, though? Something that you were unaware dark dragons could ever be afflicted with. Who is it?" Darkspyro shifted again, before looking up from the stone floor. "No-one here," he replied, "I can sense her presence around nine leagues to the north-east. I need company, and when I get there, she will need help. I leave in the morning… if conditions stay as they are now, I will return in five days."

Having packed a rucksack with a spade, axe, machete, hammer, gems imbued with spell and health energies, and a bottle of mead concentrate that he had acquired from Ignitus along with a small chalice, Darkspyro headed into the dojo where the others were gathered. After he had bid them farewell and they good luck to him the dark dragon walked out onto the observation platform and took to the air.

After three leagues of solid flight Darkspyro alighted upon a protrusion of forest into the plains that edged its main bulk and allowed himself to glide down onto a grassy knoll of little note through a barely noticeable gap in the canopy. Setting his rucksack onto the ground, he unloaded some of his items and began the sometimes tedious, sometimes enjoyable task of setting up his base-camp. Starting by pollarding the surrounding vegetation and trees for resources, he then constructed a shelter, bed and pike for the purpose of capturing a very particular prey. Finishing his designation of the place where he would soon light a fire and stocking small ditch perhaps three feet away with easily burnable wood, Darkspyro allowed himself a short rest before snatching up the pike and readying his mind and body for the coming hunt.

Once prepared, the dark dragon walked out onto the plains. Keeping low to the ground, he lay down the pike behind a small hill two hundred metres away from his prey. Walking onto the hill so as to reveal himself, he then aggravated the massive stallion with bolts of dark energy. As intended, Darkspyro's prey turned on him, possessed of too much sinewy mass for the dark dragon to kill using his elemental abilities, and aware of this.

When the huge animal was but ten metres from running him down, he gambolled backwards and lodged the pike hard against the ground behind him. By means of both its own incapability to stop the momentum it had built up in the necessary space of time and the effectiveness of Darkspyro's angling of his pike, the stallion impaled itself on the weapon so that it lodged several feet into its chest. Taking the machete from the belt he had constructed of saplings and unfolding his emptied rucksack kept on the other side of this, he took a stone of the stallion's finest meat and salted it before heading back to his camp.

After lighting a campfire and cooking some of the meat, Darkspyro ate heartily and rested for a while before extinguishing the flames and packing back into his bag what tools he had left out along with the rest of the meat and rested the pack in one corner of the shelter. That done, he brought in the rest of his firewood and checked that the shelter was watertight before rearranging the bed he had made and barricading himself inside as the sun set over the plains.

When he awoke in the morning, he found the air cool and dry inside the shelter, with moist ground and a warm sun outside. After regaining what little magical energy he had exerted the previous day from one of the gems he had brought with him, Darkspyro cooked and devoured another half-pound of stallion meat before packing up everything that he had taken out for his breakfast.

Taking some energy directly from the relevant gem, the dark dragon concealed and protected his shelter and its contents (consisting of all the resources he had collected as well as the bed) using a spell, then left on an updraft that carried him several hundred yards into the air once he made use of it. Flying for another twelve hours, he stopped then to eat some more of the meat along with a quantity of fruit he found in this unexplored section of the forest that he had by now reached. Following this he flew for another few hours until what he was looking for came into view.

The settlement was a beautiful free-build site dotted with red oak, tall walnut and rugged six-leafed sycamore trees. In the centre lay a forge, a stone map of the settlement and a relatively large inn. From there outward lay between fifty and a hundred houses, all sizes and shapes but all of both exceptionally beautiful structure and materials, interspersed with lush grass, small trading posts, quant little market stalls and the aforementioned trees. Were the rest of the world not so dangerous so as to be a threat to this place's security and I not bound by my duties, Darkspyro thought, I would live here without a second thought.

Darkspyro dived down to reach his destination.


	32. Chapter 32: the benign darkness

Chapter 32: the benign darkness

Once landed, Darkspyro went to the inn of the settlement he was in, learning from listening to conversations of the locals that the place bore the name Leafith. When sat at the bar, he ordered a pint of mead and allowed his eyes to glaze over as he supped at it and sank deeply into the sloshing mass of his own senses. Seeking out the mind of the individual he had come to see his eyes unglazed as he found her.

Looking up at the barman, he waited until the human turned around before saying a single, questioning word. "Sol?" The barman broke into a slight smile as a response. Motioning for Darkspyro to follow, he led the dark-dragon through a series of consecutive doors behind the bar. Once they had gone through the last Darkspyro sensed that they were now underground.

The two of them came out into the spectator area of a square arena containing two fighters and surrounded by around three-hundred spectators of all sizes, talents and races. Dotted among the pirates, ice-men and settlers, he spied llama-people, dragonfly-people, Manweersmalls, some of Hunter's people and even three or four dragons.

A chill ran down Darkspyro's spine. Hunter had disappeared shortly after the construction of the new dragon guardians' temple had finished without a trace. Spyro and Cynder had been ordered to escort ember to the dragon town before they had had the chance to look for their cheetah-man friend and everyone was now so preoccupied with the organisation of their raid on the concurrent skies fortress that they had forgotten about him completely.

Making a mental note of what he had just recalled, the dark dragon turned his attentions back toward the goings on within the arena. Sol was fighting an ice-man. The green skin-tinted human thrust his sword at her, she blocking the blow with her own weapon and twisting it around to make him take a step back by swatting at his shield. Before her opponent could escape unscarred, Sol pinned the end of his blade to the floor by its flat and cart-wheeled up it over his shoulder to land behind him. Twisting the man's sword arm behind his back she disarmed him before hauling him over her own shoulder to crush his face against the floor.

Getting to her feet, Sol kicked the man's sword away from him before grabbing him by the shoulder and bringing her opponent to stand once more. As he swung his palm at her she parried the blow with her forearm before seizing his other shoulder and dislocating his right leg with a swift kick to the side of the knee. Pushing the ice-man back slightly she now sent him sprawling with an upward elbow smash that cracked his jawbone. Stamping on the blade of her own sword so it flew from the ground into her hand, she pressed it to his throat before he could get up. Her opponent conceded.

After Sol had left the ring, she glanced up at Darkspyro and came to meet him of her own accord. Once before him, she spoke. "Welcome Darkspyro, defeater of the ape king, newest thorn in the side of Malefor. Stories get around quickly, do they not?" Darkspyro smiled before making his reply. "That depends on your perception of quickly; almost four years since Gaul and almost five months since becoming a thorn." A half smile crept onto Sol's face. "Are you here to be my substitute for the penultimate round?" The question came as no surprise to the dark dragon.

Once he was in the ring and had been announced, his opponent stepped in. Sol's rival Marck, whom she would be facing in the final round, had substituted a man of enormous proportions. Knowing the look of training effects well from Roaran, members of the raiding party Sparx had assembled and certain other warriors he had met on his travels, Darkspyro immediately knew that whom he was facing had bone-conditioned his skull, knuckles and all other areas which it was impossible to cover with muscle. Everywhere covered by muscle or tendons was obscured by a layer of this mass several inches thick and the human stood seven feet tall with shoulders proportionate to his form. Unlike Roaran or Caisr this man had no energy reserves in the form of fat or in his liver and from the way he walked and stretched it was apparent that his muscle was not the type of speed but of sheer sluggish force.

The man, known apparently as Beast, stepped forth as Darkspyro did and immediately swung for the dark dragon. Clamping his hand around his opponent's forearm, Darkspyro vaulted upward and kicked Beast in the temple. As the human was thrown off balance, his adversary delivered a series of quick strikes to every pressure and weakness point on Beast but to no effect. With the advent of his regaining of balance the man then unleashed a flurry of his own knockout attempts. For the reason of superior agility and speed rather than sheer endurance and power, Darkspyro was left unscathed until Beast's unrelenting attacks had forced him backward into one corner of the arena.

With a roar the man closed one of his vice-like hands around the dark dragon's throat and rammed him into the wire fence that composed the wall of the arena, suspending him off of his feet with that singular arm and simultaneously choking the life from him with the grip possessed of that limb's hand. "Surrender or die." He growled. Summoning all of his power and all of his breath, the dark-dragon grasped Beast by his shoulders and whispered "alfl noit oury wno ahdwos." Dark energies enveloped the human and the dark dragon used his shock to slip from his grasp and slide between his legs, rising behind him.

Ramming his shoulder into Beast's pelvis while grabbing his ankles, Darkspyro caused the human to tear through the fence under his own mass while flicking his legs into the air behind him. Falling completely out of the ring, beast passed into the dark portal of his own shadow rather than hitting the floor. The crowd went silent. As the shadow vanished, sol cheered, and the rest of the spectators explosively followed suit.

Once Darkspyro had exited the arena, Sol once more entered to fight mark. As the bell signifying the start of the fight rang, Sol was for once the first to attack. Leaping into the air, she struck his shield with her sword. Marck, a six foot tall middleweight settler wielding a skewer-like sword and gem-encrusted, sharp-edged shield fell onto his back before rolling to his feet with the same momentum. As he began to raise both his head and his weapon Sol hacked her blade six inches into his sword arm. Kicking Marck in the face so he span around in mid-air to land on all fours, she caught his sword in her left hand.

As Marck twisted to face her having removed Sol's sword from his shoulder and assigned it to his left hand, she threw a deliberately sloppy punch at his ribs. Marck's response grapple seemed to have hopes of flipping Sol over his shoulder until she slid her feet backward and pushed down on his collarbone. The upper back of Sol's adversary slammed into the arena floor. Crushing his remaining good hand under her foot to reacquire her sword and with her opponent's other arm mangled, she pressed one weapon to his gut and the other to his sternum. Marck conceded the battle without hesitation.

Having received applause, a trophy and a sizeable bag of prize money, Sol returned to Darkspyro and the pair walked to her house. Once there, Darkspyro made himself at home and explained to her what he and the others at the temple were planning. After he had finished, Sol looked back at him from where she had been staring out of the window. "I'll do it," she said, certain of herself "we'll leave in the morning. I'll see you at dawn, Darkspyro." And with that, Sol went to bed, as did the dark dragon that had become her friend in less than a day.


	33. Chapter 33: malevolent strength

Chapter 33: malevolent strength

The front door of Sol's house exploded inward as it was impacted by a huge boot. Doing now the same to every other locked door in the building, the hulking figure found that both of his targets had left. By now he was hearing the footsteps of the local authorities. Turning, he stood poised facing the door and knowing already the only way this could end. The huge man smiled.

The men, of both respectable size and physique but nothing compared to the intruder rushed in through the now unoccupied doorway. The intruder uppercut the first through the ceiling, imploded the second's skull with a kick to the temple, elbow-smashed the third into the wall to his right before backhanding him across the jaw to break his neck and launched the fourth through the window with a palm strike to the sternum. Dusting himself off, the hulking figure made his way to the back door of the house.

The man suddenly felt a tiny twinge of pain and a force that made even him step forward with his left leg to steady himself. Turning, he looked his assailant in the eyes and pulled the diamond-tipped javelin from his back. In a fluid motion he parried the second projectile and threw the first to pin the crossbow to its wielder's forehead. The crossbow-bearer collapsed backward and lay still with his eyes wide open. Having paused for a fraction of a second, the hulking figure turned to kick the back door from its hinges and walk out.

Walking through the settlement toward the tree-line he was interrupted in his progress by a man wielding a broadsword. He caught his arm, broke it and took possession of the weapon. It had fine balance and felt feather-like to him. Decapitating the weapon's original owner with ease the hulking figure proceeded to silence all whom he encountered by means of the weapon before any could sound the alarm, until he reached the settlement's edge.

Jah unstuck the javelin from his head and sat up. The point of the projectile had only passed about a twentieth of an inch into his skull after having to stab through his crossbow first. Tearing off one of his sleeves he used the fabric as a headband to staunch his facial bleeding, then ran to the nearest outpost and raised the alarm.

As the hulking figure turned around it was all he could do to tuck his chin against his collarbone while Jah's gaze fell on him along with the word that caused the ensuing hail of diamond-tipped javelins upon him. The enormous man fell backward onto the flat of his back in the dirt. As Jah walked away with his crossbow slung across his shoulders, the rest of the law-keeping force moved in to inspect their huge kill, all the while the fallen man laying still.

At the moment the rest of the crossbow-men halted in their futile efforts to remove the javelins from him, Darkroaran's fist shot up to collapse the throat of one whom was leaning over him, then locking his feet around another's neck he removed two of the javelins from his chest with ease. He rolled backward to his feet, the side-effect of which was the ramming of the man who's neck was locked between his legs into the ground at speed. Pulverising another's kidney with a single strike, he kicked a fourth under the chin before throwing his head back into the face of the fifth and dispatching the remaining six with the javelins. Reacquiring the sword he had dropped in the wake of the projectile onslaught Darkroaran strode off into the forest.

Jah heard faint sounds from around where he had left the law-keeping party about a hundred metres behind. Pausing to listen for a split second he recognized the noise, faint as it was, as that of intense combat. Spinning on his heel jah doubled back on himself and sprinted toward the location he had previously thought to be that of the huge man's demise. As he rounded the final corner his face fell.

Jah's jaw knotted so tightly his teeth almost cracked. What he saw would have caused a breakdown in a lesser man of his age, this much seemed certain. What surrounded him was a mess of broken warriors; broken skulls, javelin-impaled bodies... a man lain in the dirt with a mangled throat.

They were all dead. _The being that did this_, Jah thought, _will pay in blood_.


	34. Chapter 34: The Beginning Of The End

Chapter 34: The Beginning Of The End

A black smudge appeared to approach on the horizon as the observation platform that jutted out from the side of the dragon temple was covered in the sights and sounds of two beings locked in hand-to-hand combat. Spyro blocked Cynder's punch at his gut with a swipe of his forearm before taking her legs from under her with his tail. As the black dragoness hit the floor, she flicked downward her own tail (as she had been on all fours when Spyro had performed his last attack) to spring up and deliver a powerful uppercut to the purple dragon's jaw with her wing.

Spyro was hit so hard that he did a somersault. Landing on his feet and skidding a couple of paces backward, he quickly charged back toward his adversary to sieze an opportunity; while Cynder prepared a mid-block for his tackle, he leaped to mule kick the front of her right shoulder. With Spyro's move sending both dragons from four legs to two as Cynder crumpled backward, the dragoness drew her adversary's titanium sword from under his wing to hit its owner in the small of his back with the hilt.

With both beings hitting the floor and one armed, each reacted differently. While Spyro caught himself on his elbows before rolling to his feet via the momentum Cynder's striking counter-attack had given him and staggered away from his adversary to find his balance on two legs with his back to her, Cynder allowed such backward momentem she had become possesed of to stretch her legs up to almost beside her head, then flicked them back toward the ground by her tail to go from a lying position on her back to a two-legged crouch. As Cynder span on her heel to again face her sparring partner, she saw that he had staggered several paces and was leaned against one of the observation platform's statues, panting.

As the black dragoness advanced with her balance aided by gentle continuous flapping from her wings, her adversary's head turned to face her. At the point when his opponent had stepped to within four feet of him, Spyro smiled. Cynder stopped dead. By now Darkspyro and Sol were quite easily visible and could see what was going on. Unsheathing the crystal-alloy greatsword from the statue's hands, he arced it in the air to disarm Cynder and lock his arm around hers, pinning the dragoness to the floor before pressing the point of his blade to her throat. As Ignitus declared Spyro's victory and the purple dragon helped his partner up, Darkspyro landed, then proceeded to properly introduce Sol to the rest of the raiding party. That done, the entire group went back inside the dojo to continue their training.

_Three days later... _

With everyone in top shape, the raiding party armed up, its human members saddled up and the group as a whole set off for concurrent skies. Encountering little resistance as they flew through the forested stretch of the trip, they were concerned as they soared over a small port town to find it abandoned with only one boat missing (concurrent skies being only accessable by flight or the highly guarded tunneling port of the grublins on the side only reachable by sea, due to the area's geographical position). However, what worried them more was that whoever had then ported at the far side of the base of concurrent skies had left a patterned series of breakages in the considerably solid, sheer slate cliff all the way to the top.

"Shit... who are we going up against Saaaen?" Spyro asked the red dragon to his right, momentarily turning his head to face him as he did so. Saaaen shook his head, Sarak saying, sounding concerned and wearing a determined scowl "We'll see soon enough." as the raiding party landed, they were surprised to find no enemies awaiting them. After a long walk of seeing very little by the dragons and now-dismounted riders, they came to the gate of the main fortress to be met with the sight of Hexax, Sarak's cousin, standing between two AA-shotgun turrets.

"What the fuck are you doing here?" exclaimed Sarak with a look of frustrated surprise upon his face. Hexax smiled slightly and replied "Take a guess my cousin. By the way, these turrets are supplied with shells of explosive ammunition made continuously from the air via an engineered catalyst, so don't think you can wait for them to run out of it." that said, the doors behind him swung open and he turned on his heel, walking into the fortress as they again closed and barricaded behind him.

The turrets opened fire. The dragons, void of shields, ducked behind their riders as they raised theirs. Sol and Darkspyro now gambolled behind Sarak and Saaaen at the first moment this opportunity presented itself while Fursk, the raiders' throw expert and his dragoness mount xaer did the same behind the bulk of Caisr and his mount. With no riders of their own, Spyro and Cynder jumped clear of each other as the explosive projectiles were aimed at them first, he taking shelter behind their high-flyer Rennn and his mount while she did thus behind their sorcerer Voron and his.

Summoning up all the leg-strength he could, Saaaen salmon-leaped with his wings against his sides and destroyed one of the turrets in a hail of explosive flames. Before the weapon's peer could kill Saaaen, Fursk hurled his shield into the front of its barrel. AT this point Sol ran up Sarak's back to strike the said shield so hard that it bent around the turret, overloading it as ammunition exploded inside the now-sealed barrel so that it stopped firing. Now she and the rest of the raiding party hauled backward on the doors simultaneously. In under ten seconds the barricade was broken from its hinges and the fortress' entrance swung open. Re-drawing their weapons they entered the building to find Darkroaran... a powerful alliance had finally struck the vein of hard-resisting substance that would be their first true challenge.


End file.
